Lesley Chilcott is an award-winning filmmaker, documentarian, and producer. She directed the feature documentaries “A Small Section of the World” and “CodeGirl,” the latter being the first feature-length film to premiere on YouTube. She also produced the 2007 Academy Award-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” the 2008 cult rock documentary “It Might Get Loud,” and the 2010 documentary “Waiting for Superman,” for which she won a PGA Award for Outstanding Producer of a Documentary Theatrical Motion Picture.

“Watson” will premiere at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival on April 25.

W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.

LC: “Watson” is an action-adventure film about life of Captain Paul Watson and his daring acts to get us to notice that the oceans are not only full of intelligent and fascinating life, but also the key to life itself. All the choices he has made in his life are because of three things he firmly believes in: the interconnectedness of all things, the strength of an ecosystem is dependent upon diversity within it, and Earth’s limited carrying capacity. Ninety percent of the ocean’s fish stocks are now fully exploited, overexploited, or depleted.

Our oceans are in very bad shape, and most people aren’t aware because it’s something we can’t easily see. It’s time to literally look beneath the surface.

W&H: What drew you to this story?

LC: Paul himself. He is a cross between a philosophy professor and an unruly pirate. He’s like a real life “Most Interesting Man in the World” who says his clients are whales, sharks, turtles, and every other living thing in the ocean. Everything he does in life is for them. His philosophy of direct, non-violent action goes far beyond the usual rhetoric and poster-hanging; you might not know his name but you know about whales being killed in the  Southern Ocean because of him.

Oddly, we have explored space more than we have explored the world’s oceans, and I had the idea that if I could show whales and marine life in a new way, shot from underneath like slowly orbiting spaceships, that perhaps some people would see what’s beneath the ocean in a new light.

Paul has a theory that the Earth itself is like a spaceship, and like any spaceship it needs a life support system, which is the ocean. As humans, we are the passengers, and we’re slowly killing off the crew—every living creature in the ocean.

W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?

LC: Extinction. Paul talks about the law of interdependence; humans are only one type of animal, and all species play integral roles. Diversity is the basis of all life as we know it. This is significant because we get up to 80 percent of our oxygen from the ocean. We don’t regularly think about this. So it’s not just ocean creatures that are going extinct on our watch—it’s us.

W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?

LC: Paul’s legal status and worrying that Paul might leave the country, or be forced to leave, before I could finish the film. At the start of filming he had two Interpol red notices, which are like international arrest warrants. Since Paul is landlocked and can’t go to sea, I interviewed him in a large empty warehouse, but shot background places in case his status were to change and I had to film him somewhere else later on.

The other challenge was choosing which stories of action to feature in the film among all the amazing campaigns he has run or been a part of in his 50 years as an ocean activist.

W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made. 

LC: I have a longstanding relationship with the wonderful Participant Media, and I had been wanting to work with Austrian Terra Mater Factual Studios because of their excellent commitment to telling stories about animals and wildlife. I introduced the two of them, hoping they would co-finance the film, and we all made “Watson” together.

W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?

LC: In college, I was obsessed with creating a fast food vegetarian chain, yet I spent my free time working on my friend’s student films. This same wise friend pointed out that filmmaking was actually a career, and since it was what I truly loved, maybe I should put the veggie restaurant idea aside.

I’m always inspired by the mix of studied craft and technique combined with the unpredictability of storytelling. You can ponder and plan all you want, but once you start a film it becomes its own thing, and it tells you what it wants to be.

W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?

LC: Best: “Don’t bring a pen to every meeting.” Have you ever noticed that it’s usually the women writing everything down?

Worst: “If you love what you do, it won’t feel like work.” Really, now? It’s more like if you love what you do, you work really hard at it!

W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?

LC: Make your own film as soon as you can, even if it’s only three minutes long and shot on your phone. Once you can edit in your head, you can tell better stories.

Also, watch films in genres you don’t necessarily like—some of the style and techniques from these other genres can influence your own in an exciting way.

W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.

LC: Recently, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” by Marielle Heller.

Previously, Maren Ade’s “Toni Erdmann,” Debra Granik’s “Winter’s Bone,” Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker,” and Barbara Kopple’s “Harlan County, USA.”

W&H: It’s been a little over a year since the reckoning in Hollywood and the global film industry began. What differences have you noticed since the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements launched?

LC: This is a tough one, because on the one hand, there is a lot more talk and awareness, and a lot of bad behavior is being called out by brave people. On the other hand, not a lot has changed—yet.

Discussions about equality are long overdue, but there is a lot of confusion. I’m working on a project where I’ve had the fortune of speaking with a lot of neuroscientists and other experts on gender. And while it’s absolutely true that women and men are equal, we are all not the same. It’s important to discuss both our innate and learned differences in behavior, so that we realize diversity, of all kinds, is the key to working together successfully.