Blog
The Octopus Teacher is a Timely Documentary looking at Human Connection
- March 22, 2022
- Posted by: Crystal
- Category: Blog
The Connection with Animals and how it affects our Relationship with this planet is so beautifully encompassed in this Documentary: My Octopus Teacher, A Netflix Original.
Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect when I put on “My Octopus Teacher,” for my kids and myself.
Yes, the title of the Documentary was alluring, as how could an Octopus teach a person? So, I did what any curious person would do and dove right in. I mean with questions like these below, why wouldn’t I watch it?!
Was it going to be a gruesome animal documentary full of life and death moments that I’d have to pause for my young kids? Or, was it going to be pushing the Global Warming narrative which seems to be a normal occurrence in most animal-based documentaries these days? Well, I’d have to say neither narratives drove this beauty of a documentary home as I watched it unfold with my children. I found it authentic and raw, plus it carried a humanism to it that I just adored.
Right out the gates, I will say I loved this Animal & human entwined Netflix Original documentary.
As I’m sure you can relate, some animal documentaries capture the wildness of animals on our planet and how much of a narrow line between life and death there is, or the environmental impacts… Yet, few can capture the connectedness of an animal and a human like they were able to in this film.
As filmmaker, Craig Foster addresses his own human turmoil as a mid-life man who is not sure where his life is going, he finds solace amongst the Kelp Forests and an uncommon bond with an Octopus.
What this film does so brilliantly is to show that there is a need in our world to educate people on the connection that can be experienced between animals and humans. One that can’t always be found when we are in a place of personal turmoil with other humans. Animals truly can and do save people.
We could even speculate through this human-animal connection there will naturally grow a need to protect an animal’s environment and the relationship formed between animals and humans can benefit the world’s environment’s. So many times in animal documentaries, there is this ever-looming fear of animals going extinct and global warming, yet the films miss this vital “connection link” between humans and animals. This film didn’t miss such a mark of importance.
Near the end of My Octopus Teacher, Craig says something profound in how his relationship with the Octopus he frequented daily taught him how to not just be a visitor on this planet, but to live as part of the world.
This animal not only showed him and offered him a connection between himself and her, but the planet as well and his engagement in life itself.
It truly touches on this existential dilemma we have being here on this earth, and brings the importance of being involved in life and not just watching it go by.
I could stretch even further and say so much of what has been happening of late during the pandemic times, is we have all been placed into observer positions for the safety of ourselves and others, and yet, life… to live fully and in balance needs not only to be observed, but to be experienced. This Documentary is so timely and necessary as we begin to engage with our outside world again.