Living Waters: Intelligent Design in the Oceans of the Earth was a big hit on Friday night at Seattle Center’s McCaw Hall. In the shadow of the iconic Space Needle, the venue provided an elegant setting to celebrate the release. About 250 audience members pretty well packed out the large theater, part of a complex that includes the Seattle Opera and Pacific Northwest Ballet.

The film is now available for sale on DVD. Blu-ray editions will follow in September. Illustra plans to package its three “Design of Life” documentaries as a trilogy that will also be available soon. These three beautiful and inspiring nature films — Flight: The Genius of Birds, Metamorphosis: The Beauty and Design of Butterflies, and now Living Waters — provide an awesome tour of natural wonders with the kind of visual and emotional appeal that makes the science of intelligent design highly accessible and compelling.

A gourmet dinner for members of the Discovery Society preceded the screening, part of a yearly private Insiders Briefing on upcoming developments in ID research that continued through Saturday night. At the conclusion of the meal, Stephen Meyer shared some excellent news about progress in advancing intelligent design among scientists and in the culture.

We then “migrated” (no magnetic navigation required) to the lecture hall downstairs, a theater with a huge screen and great sound. John West, Associate Director of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture, introduced the film.

Living Waters was photographed on the Pacific Coast of Canada and the U.S., in Honduras, Mexico, and French Micronesia. The film is highlighted by in-depth looks at remarkable biological mechanisms and groundbreaking, state-of-the art computer animations, illustrating dolphin echolocation, salmon olfaction, sea turtle magnetic navigation, and more. It all adds up to a very powerful argument for design. See a clip from the sequence on sea turtles here:

This being Dr. Meyer’s first viewing, he gave a ringing cheer as the credits started to roll. Applause from the audience was loud and long.

Following the film, Dr. West invited producer Lad Allen and two of the scientists who appear in the film, Biologic Institute’s Richard Sternberg and Discovery Institute’s Paul Nelson, to the stage for a Q&A. The questions from the audience exhibited a keen interest in the subjects of salmon migration, dolphin echolocation, and whale ecology.

Allen described the vision that drove him to produce Illustra’s outstanding trilogy. Familiar with the BBC and National Geographic documentaries that invariably give an rigid Darwinian slant, he wanted to make products of equal quality that present the design alternative in the most cogent and credible way. Five years of hard work later, the films have achieved that goal. In many respects they excel the pro-Darwin competition, measured in the quality of the interviews, music and animations, the thought-provoking logic of design and the presentation of cutting-edge science.

John West gave a stirring pitch for audience members to get copies of the film and share them with friends, family members, and scientists. As part of the admission price, each guest received a DVD copy. Get yours here!