For 75-year-old Ray Ives, life is an endless treasure hunt. For the past half-century, he has been scouring the ocean floor for anything that glitters, bringing back to the surface everything from swords to bottles to real gold — in a diving suit from the early 1900s. Ray: A Life Underwater is a haunting and beatiful short film by Amanda Bluglass and Danny Cooke, a poetic portrait of the unusual man through his collection of unusual marine artifacts that captures his ceaseless curiosity and serene lens on the world.

For someone who hasn’t dived, I couldn’t explain, really. Well, it’s like when you’re on the moon, I suppose. I’ve never been on the moon, but when you’re down on the bottom, it’s sandy like the moon, you feel pressure on your body, especially the deeper you go, and I guess it just reminds you of space. You hold your breath, it’s absolutely perfect.”

The film is part Past Objects, part Things, part candidate for this omnibus of poetic short films about obsolete occupations, part perfect piece of weekday escapism.