My Father, the Captain

About My Father, the Captain

In every legend, there is a legacy. In the life and career of undersea
explorer Jacques Cousteau, that legacy beats in the heart of the sea and in
the heart of his son, Jean-Michel, the noted French environmentalist,
educator and documentary film producer who has spent most of his adult life
nurturing the work of his famous father.

In My Father, The Captain, Jean-Michel Cousteau takes an open and intimate look at the life he shared with his father, and the legend he has taken it
upon himself to carry. In so doing, he hopes to shed new and meaningful
light on the life and work of a man who inspired millions to reconsider our
relationship with the sea and its creatures-and, in the process, to
understand a little more about himself and his family as well.

"Captain Cousteau was a complicated man," the younger Cousteau writes. "He
was a man of many different personalities, many different moods. But this
is how it is with all great men, yes? We know the public mask, but it is
the private face that reveals a man’s true character. It is the man we
know when the cameras are not filming."

My Father, The Captain is shot-through with new material and fresh insights
into the life and mind of a man who helped to jump-start a global
conservation effort that continues to flourish. Jean-Michel Cousteau and
his collaborator, New York Times best-selling author Daniel Paisner, offer
an intimate reappraisal of the many touchstone moments Jean-Michel shared
with his father, as well as the seminal moments from his father’s life that
have become part of the Cousteau family lore and legend.