Field films · Documentaries · Talks
Some places cannot be brought back in a photograph. These films follow the search into caves, flooded mines, and landscapes with stories still buried in them.
Enter the film roomFieldwork is collaborative. The camera is another way to bring the question home.
01 / 03Begin here
Two field documentaries and a full lecture from The Explorers Club.
A film by Mike Sandone · With Michael Girard and the Sistema Calera team
Follow the search beneath Mexico’s Sierra de El Abra, where flooded passages and a remarkable fossil assemblage have turned a cave into an evolving record of deep time.
A film by Mike Sandone · Featuring Michael Girard
Archival clues, geology, and a landscape search converge in the Adirondacks. An investigation where the value lies as much in the question as in the opening found.
Michael Girard · The Explorers Club lecture · 2026
Michael’s full Explorers Club presentation follows the cave’s exploration, fossil evidence, flooded passages, and the questions still being investigated.
From the field
Selected films produced by Mike Sandone, following cave and mine investigations with Michael in the field.
Mike Sandone’s 2023 NSS Video Salon Best of Show film follows Michael’s ROV through the flooded cave.
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A field deployment into a submerged mine.
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Part of Mike Sandone’s Mines and Mysteries series.
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A mine investigation with a human history.
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Testing the depth and limits of an underwater search.
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ROV footage from a flooded iron mine.
Watch film ↗From the lectern
Michael’s 2022 presentation on using remotely operated underwater vehicles to investigate flooded spaces.
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Continue watching
Playlists gathered on Michael’s YouTube channel.
Behind the camera
Mike Sandone is an explorer and documentarian drawn to history, adventure, and forgotten places. His films follow real field investigations, bringing difficult-to-reach landscapes and the people asking questions of them to the screen.
Many of the short documentaries here are his work. Explore more at Sandone Films ↗ and on his YouTube channel ↗.
From Michael’s archive
Follow Michael’s fieldwork, presentations, and ongoing explorations on his own channel. The playlists above offer a few places to begin.
Visit Michael Girard’s channel ↗