HBO’s ‘After the Bite’ Is a Smart Doc Complement to Shark Week — Watch the Trailer

Shark Week is upon us this month, but there’s a different shark tale headed toward HBO and Max on July 26 to offer documentary heads a smart-doc complement to the annual Discovery rollout.

Directed and produced by Ivy Meeropol, “After the Bite” takes a look at how a 2018 shark attack left a Cape Cod community in Massachusetts reeling over the effects of a re-adapting marine environment. Local residents and vacationers flock en masse every summer to Cape Cod — but only now are beginning to grapple with the alarming reality of the apex predators. IndieWire shares the trailer below ahead of the documentary’s premiere.

Great white sharks’ deadly interactions with people have increased in the waters stretching from Maine to the Cape and Islands. Public protectors are now forced to address the risk of serious injuries with stop-the-bleed kits throughout public access beaches, along with PSAs, billboards, shark-tracking apps, spotter planes, and new training programs and protocols for lifeguards. “After the Bite” examines a coastal community renegotiating its relationship with the environment as the waters become increasingly hospitable to sharks and their prey.

Participants on “After the Bite” include lifeguards, conservationists, fishermen, journalists, paramedics, town residents, activists, and scientists facing the issues and finding solutions, including seal scientist Lisa Sette from the Center of Coastal Studies; Dr. Greg Skomal and Meg Winton of the Atlantic White Shark Conservatory, which tracks shark off the coast of Cape Cod and estimated 800 great white sharks in the waters from 2015 to 2018; and Crocker Snow, whose uninhabited island in Nantucket Sound is the largest breeding ground for seals in the western North Atlantic.

“After the Bite” screened at the recent Nantucket Film Festival. It is a Reversal Films production in association with Red 50 Inc. Xan Parker produces with director Meeropol; the HBO Documentary Films presentation is executive-produced by Whitney Dow. HBO EPs include Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller, and Tina Nguyen.

Ivy Meeropol previously directed “Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn.”