My Netflix list has gotten too samey. I poked around for something short (85 minutes) and unlike what I'd seen lately. It occurred to me that not only had I not seen a documentary in months; I hadn't seen a nature documentary in years. Why not one with an intriguing title?
In 2018, naturalist Craig Foster goes diving near Cape Town and discovers a common octopus covered in shells for deception. He decides to watch her daily for a year. At first she shies away from him; then she sometimes clings to him in apparent playfulness. He is tempted to protect her from predation and starvation, despite the widely accepted rule against interference. Of course, a year is a long time for an octopus....
I've long found octopi cool and even kind of cute. There was not much more a documentary could teach me about them. But never before had I seen a human form such an emotional attachment to an individual octopus, even without naming her. Through Craig, I felt an extra dose of care too.
So what does the octopus teach? Nothing deliberate, I'm sure, but Craig no longer senses the ocean or nature in general as nearly so separate from humanity as he once did. His exploration inspired him to found the Sea Change Project.
MOT may be only so informative, but I don't mind that it won Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars. See it if you want a tender take on an invertebrate.
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