So, you thought that My Octopus Teacher was there to teach us about cephalopods; its real message is about the value of teamwork and what we can achieve if we work together.
What we know: The movie revolves around two characters: a man, Craig Foster, and an octopus. It documents the unique relationship Craig forms with the octopus over the period of a year: a year when Craig commits to free dive every day for 365 days to rekindle his connection with nature and find his purpose.
What we didn’t know: This movie took almost a decade to make. What started with hundreds of hours of personal footage that Craig made while diving solo in the kelp forest turned into thousands of hours of video footage that was weaved together by a professional, multi-talented, global team into an 84-minute story that is resonating with viewers right across the world.
How did he do this? How did the My Octopus Teacher transform from one man’s set of interesting “home videos” into a global blockbuster? The back-story of this movie is a tale of teamwork, passion and humble leadership.
The starting point of global success was not in the unique footage, but in the decision that Craig took to ask for help. Recognising the need for guidance and having the humility to ask for it he reached out to first one, then another and then dozens of global specialists to help craft this fine movie.
In the end, the Netflix story of My Octopus Teacher was the product of masterful teamwork, blending the skills of a talented and dedicated team of people from South Africa, Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the US. Even Craig’s son, Tom, contributed an elemental piece of music to the score.
Not satisfied with the team talented movie-makers, Craig and filmmaker Pippa Ehrlick also enlisted the help of Professor Jennifer Mather, a Canadian octopus behaviour expert, to help them get into the mind of the octopus in order to tell the story authentically.
The entire film is set in the kelp forest on Cape Town’s coastline, the only giant bamboo kelp forest in the world. It is an abundant, yet fragile ecosystem that is richer in species than the Great Barrier Reef.
Ultimately the movie is credited by Craig himself, not as his own story, but as ‘the brainchild of the Sea Change Project, a group of scientists, storytellers, journalists and filmmakers who are committed to raising awareness about the Great African Seaforest and the need for its preservation for future generations.
The project shines a spotlight on this undersea wilderness: over the last few decades the kelp forests have declined by 40%, they are under threat from pollution, over-fishing and climate change, and 98% of the marine territory surrounding South Africa has been earmarked for mining.
And they achieved their goal. My Octopus Teacher is a Netflix original, it was the most watched movie in South Africa for weeks, it has been featured in film festivals all over the world, it has been nominated for several awards and has won a few, too, and it has received rave reviews by CNN, the Washington Post, New Scientist and more.
But this is really a movie about teamwork, starting with the recognition that in order to achieve a bigger dream, individual egos, fears and insecurities needed to be set aside.
Swati Thiyagarajan, Craig’s wife and associate producer, said: “I saw first-hand the love, energy and sometimes agony that went into creating this film.” She added that the toll it took, like Pippa having to give up a job to commit to this project full-time, paled in comparison to the deeply emotional and spiritual connections that were formed while working on it.
This My Octopus Teacher back-story about the power of collaboration, shared passion and purpose is the one that really deserves the Oscar.
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