The Seahorse (1934), one of Jean Painlevé’s “scientific-poetic” sea documentaries  “In the early 1930s, when Painlevé set out to make one of the first films ever to use footage shot underwater, he chose as its subject the seahorse—a species with unusual, and to Painlevé, commendable sex roles: whereas it is the female seahorse who produces the eggs, it is the male who gives birth to them. ‘The seahorse,’ he would later write, ‘was for me a splendid way of promoting the kindness and virtue of the father while at the same time underlining the necessity of the mother. In other words, I wanted to re-establish the balance between male and female.” -excerpted from Maverick Filmmaker Jean Painlevé (via)

The Seahorse (1934), one of Jean Painlevé’s “scientific-poetic” sea documentaries 

“In the early 1930s, when Painlevé set out to make one of the first films ever to use footage shot underwater, he chose as its subject the seahorse—a species with unusual, and to Painlevé, commendable sex roles: whereas it is the female seahorse who produces the eggs, it is the male who gives birth to them. ‘The seahorse,’ he would later write, ‘was for me a splendid way of promoting the kindness and virtue of the father while at the same time underlining the necessity of the mother. In other words, I wanted to re-establish the balance between male and female.”

-excerpted from Maverick Filmmaker Jean Painlevé (via)