My Octopus Teacher

Academy Award-winner My Octopus Teacher talks about how a man’s study of a single octopus changed him over the course of a year, and in this time, he never treats the animal like a pet, refusing to even give her a name. This is the feature film debut of director/marine journalist Pippa Ehrlich, which is remarkable considering how difficult production must have gotten with all the underwater filming. With all their work in this gorgeously dense kelp forest of South Africa, the crew documents all the things an octopus wouldn’t commonly be known to do, such as express every emotion a human could express. Then after filming was over, it took them about three months to generate some form of narrative from the recorded content.

​​The finished product gives not just a scholarly analysis of octopus behavior but a strong environmental conservation message that doesn’t come off as excessively preachy; the focus instead remains on the powerful relationship between a man and an octopus. It does what very few documentaries have done in proving that the best way to study an animal isn’t in a classroom but in its natural habitat. The heavy set of emotions that this little movie offers on such a small creature is overwhelming enough to shake up the industry of documentary filmmaking, perhaps by encouraging more underwater filming or by writing more narratives structured around a year-long experience.

G
Documentary
1 hr. 25 min.

Watch it to LEARN.
Watch it to THINK.
Watch it to feel HAPPY and SAD.