The nature film My Octopus Teacher, directed by Pippa Erlich and Brit, James Reed, has won a prestigious Oscar at the Academy Awards Ceremony in Los Angeles, California on April 25th.
The documentary stars filmmaker, Craig Foster, and his adventures whilst diving off the South African coast, specifically following his relationship with a wild common octopus he built up with her over the course of 300 days. His wife, Swati Thiyagarajan, an environmental journalist who also helped to produce the film, and says that initially there was ‘no intention’ that the footage he caputured whilst diving would become a full feature documentary.
The footage is shot amongst the underwater kelp forest off the southern African coast that the octopus calls home, off Cape Town’s peninsula. Swati and her colleagues at the Sea Change Project, which developed the documentary, gave the kelp forest a name: The Great African Sea Forest, and hope that the documentary’s success will help to highlight conservation for the area, as well as promote widespread connectivity between humans and nature.
“The boundaries between her and I seemed to dissolve,” Craig says in the film. “She was really teaching me to become sensitized to the other, especially wild creatures.”
You can view ‘My Octopus Teacher’ on Netflix!
Have you had an incredible connection to nature? Tell us! We’d love to share your story!
