An interest in photography would seem only natural for Brent Mills, the son of Olan Mills, the man whose name appeared on millions of school portraits over the decades. But it was movies that really caught the younger Mills’ attention, and when he saw one about great white sharks, his future career was set.
Today he is founder and president of Nature Films Network, the company that shot and produced “Shark Clans,” which is now showing as part of Sharkfest at the Tennessee Aquarium and Imax 3D Theater.
He travels all over the world filming wildlife in their natural habitats, but his main interest has always been sharks.
“The way it all came about was I grew up around photography and filmmaking, but I’ve always had a fascination with motion pictures. I’ve also since childhood had a fascination with dinosaurs, and I realized sharks are the last living dinosaur. They are T-Rex of the sea.
A great white shark is shown just under the surface with the (Rodney) Fox expedition vessel in background.“Then my mom took me to see ‘Blue Water, White Death’ [the 1971 documentary that predated ‘Jaws’], and from there I was struck.”