KINDRED SPIRITS: Oscar-winning documentary ‘My Octopus Teacher’ celebrates worth of other species
No matter which of the film's messages resonates most, whether it's about the environment, our personal relationships, or the assumptions we've made about animal intelligence, the word is getting out.
JEN REEDER: In the opening moments of the Netflix documentary “My Octopus Teacher” — which took home a 2021 Oscar for best documentary feature — an octopus glides overhead while the soothing voice of filmmaker Craig Foster intones: “A lot of people say that an octopus is like an alien. But the strange thing is, as you get closer to them, you realize you’re very similar in a lot of ways. You’re stepping into this completely different world, such an incredible feeling, and you feel as though you’re on the brink of something extraordinary.”
Foster’s journey to understand an octopus and himself — and the film that documents it — is indeed extraordinary. Viewers witness a man coping with exhaustion and burnout regain purpose by developing a relationship with an octopus in the Great African Sea Forest off the tip of South Africa…
Words can’t do the film justice; viewing it is a sensory experience. But that hasn’t stopped the Twitter-verse (or admittedly, this writer) from trying. Something about the film resonates deeply with both critics and the public. Comments range from “I’m never eating calamari again!!!!” and “I’m in tears” to “Really well done film that highlights some of the amazingness that exists in nature” and “The world would be a better place if every human watched this stunning piece of filmmaking”…
Pippa Ehrlich, director and editor of “My Octopus Teacher” and a member of the Sea Change Project, a nonprofit dedicated to connecting human beings to the wild and protecting the Great African Sea Forest… was so passionate about the project that she quit her job to work on the documentary… “What I loved about this story is there was a story of positivity and hope that involved human beings and the natural world being in one place,” she told TODAY. “It was an opportunity to expand people’s perceptions of what the relationship between us and the wild can be”…
Ehrlich has been surprised and delighted by feedback for “My Octopus Teacher,” particularly hearing Jane Goodall say her favorite films are “The Lord of the Rings” and “My Octopus Teacher.” In another touching instance, a 6-year-old girl in India took the film’s trailer and spliced in her own narration, sharing everything she learned about octopuses from the documentary.
“I’ve read thousands of messages,” she said. Ehrlich hopes the film reminds viewers how important it is to stay connected with nature, and not just to depend on it for food and breathing — “every second breath that you breathe into your lungs comes from oxygen that is created by our oceans,” she noted — but our mental well-being as well…
“To really put energy and time into nurturing our relationship with the wild is one of the most — and I’m speaking from experience now — one of the most reassuring and fulfilling things that you can do with your time,” she said. “It makes you think very differently about how we consume natural resources. It makes you think carefully about what this incredible natural system is giving to us, and what we can do in return, in terms of having a more reciprocal, respectful, even reverential relationship with the living planet”… No matter which of the film’s messages resonates most — whether it’s about the environment, our personal relationships or the assumptions we’ve made about animal intelligence — word is getting out. SOURCE…
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