My Octopus Teacher
in presence of Swati Thiyagarajan, awarded environmental journalist and documentary filmmaker.
"Empowering the next generation, we have the chance to change hearts and minds"
My Octopus Teacher is a 2020 Netflix Original documentary film directed by Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed, which documents the year spent by filmmaker Craig Foster forging an unusual friendship with an octopus living in a South African kelp forest, learning as the animal shares the mysteries of her world. At the 93rd Academy Awards, it won the award for Best Documentary Feature.
Sea Change Project Mission
"We are a team of media and science professionals dedicated to connecting people to the wild through incredible stories backed by scientific knowledge. Our goal is to contribute to the long-term protection of South Africa’s marine environment by making the Great African Seaforest a global icon. Our work includes films, books, exhibitions, marine biology research through living science, and impact campaigns.
Craig Foster and Ross Frylinck founded the Sea Change Trust in 2012. Through hundreds of hours of underwater exploration, they and the Sea Change team have come to understand this unique environment and the community of creatures that lives within it. We also support the call to sustainably increase South Africa’s marine protected areas (MPAs).
Our team’s discoveries have led to a groundbreaking sequence in the BBC’s Blue Planet II TV series; an outdoor photography exhibition seen by an estimated 1 million people; the book Sea Change (released globally as Underwater Wild in November 2021); and a documentary feature film, My Octopus Teacher, which has won many international awards."
Swati Thiyagarajan is the recipient of the Carl Zeiss Award, Earth Heroes Award and two Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards. Her work as the environmental editor at NDTV has been acclaimed internationally and she has been described as the doyenne of environmental journalism in India and is a core team member of the Sea Change Project, a conservation effort founded by Craig Foster and Ross Frylinck.
Written and directed by Pippa Ehrlich et James Reed
Produced by Craig Foster
Starring Craig Foster et Tom Foster
Music Kevin Smuts