Hacker Cinema
My Octopus Teacher
2020 · Film · documentary · 85 min
Directed by James Reed, Pippa Ehrlich
After years of swimming every day in the freezing ocean at the tip of Africa, Craig Foster meets an unlikely teacher: a young octopus who displays remarkable curiosity. Visiting her den and tracking her movements for months on end he eventually wins the animal’s trust and they develop a never-before-seen bond between human and wild animal.
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35 comments on Hacker News
This is my favorite "intro thought provoker," which I have seen several great authors comment about (I am not a scientist, but I'll do my best at the citation format):
Shomrat, T., Lemma, M. (2013). Memory through regeneration in planaria? Journal of Experimental Biology. [this paper details training planarians to navigate a rough surface for food, decapitating them, allowing heads to regrow, and demonstrating that the trained behavior reappears after regeneration].
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I'll look for a more plant-specific citation (of course: these were the "reaches" from author Pollan's book in my original comment) – then replace it here. The researcher is Stefano Mancuso, a plant-neurobiologist.
Gagliano, M., Mancuso, S. (2014) Mimosa pudica learning and memory. Oecologia, 175, 63-72. [experience teaches plants to learn faster and forget slower in environments where it matters]. == "pea plants solving mazes" study
Slime molds are an incredible & additional entire. nother. world.
If you watch documentaries: Netflix's non-fiction My Octopus Teacher will make the most grizzly of bears weep... so beautiful, this world.
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I'll admit: some of the credentialed scientists seem like "modern-day kooks," certainly... but: nobody else seems to have a better explanation for THIS [0].
[0] == everything / anything / everywhere at once
I think you're confusing video-essays with documentaries tbf.
The notion that 'My Octopus Teacher' or 'Boys State' - to name just two award winners of the last decade - could be replaced with some Youtube AI-narrated slop is just disingenuous in the extreme.
Octopus are fascinating creatures who developed their intelligence quite separately from us (our last common ancestor was a flatworm). They have a very different nervous system to us - much more distributed. And they are an outlier in that pretty much all other creatures exhibiting high intelligence are long-lived and social, whereas octopus are generally short-lived and solitary.
If you want to learn more about them, I recommend: https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Soul_of_an_Octopus/WVa6BQAAQBAJ
Also, the charming film: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Octopus_Teacher
Sadly, some people see them only as food. And there are proposals to intensively farm them in the EU. This seems particularly cruel for an intelligent, solitary animal. The intended method of killing them using cold water also seems cruel and inhumane.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64814781
I don't know if you've seen the documentary 'My Octopus Teacher', but the subject spends an entire year diving in frigid water. His voice and general presence are so peaceful, it's almost comical. I joked at the time I saw it that he must have no cortisol left.
My Octopus Teacher is a marvelous documentary on Netflix, observing these curious animals, and their intelligence.
There's a great documentary on Netflix called My Octopus Teacher about a filmmaker who befriends (!!) an octopus
The owner has owned this goldfish for 10 years, and decided to get this surgery to remove a tumor. I was also surprised at this, a lifespan of a goldfish can be 10-15 years. But often mismanaged environments like fishbowls mean they often don't live past 3 years(Did a Google search). Unfortunately the first pet I got was a goldfish that only lived for a couple weeks, as I didn't know the proper care required. We make so many assumptions about other animals- that they're inferior, etc. Yet we know so little about all the wildlife out there. We maybe need to give fish more respect. As a side note, I was also amazed watching 'My Octopus Teacher' on Netflix, and how sensitive, personable, and intelligent Octopuses are. Definitely recommend watching it, also a story of a nice human journey.
Well, first thing is, can you breath through your nose? Do you have that habit down? Fixing this is really important, for me at least. If a person can't breath through their nose, I suggest trying Afrin. This was such a huge lightbulb moment for me, and was my "AHA" moment. I really didn't know that the normal human condition is to nasal breathe. My mom has the same condition and I was raised by her so I didn't realize it and she didn't either to even notice it in me. It works instantly, within 10 minutes, and my world was opened up! And it still took me months to form the habit of nasal breathing, because I could never trust it enough when it worked (due to the nasal cycle). I definitely do Afrin just before bedtime too, every 12 hours or so. And I am getting surgery for the deviated septum too in February.
Second thing, do you have chronic pain? That will keep the body in a stress response. Chronic pain is actually easier to get rid of than I thought, and I tried a lot of things for 20 years. The new research at University of Colorado Boulder, using functional MRI scans in 2020 proves that much chronic pain can be eliminated in a short period with a very specific technique called Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), which is a compassion-based therapy. This is a really, really hard thing to believe, and one doesn't have to believe it fully, they just have to believe it enough to be curious and learn more. And if one is curious, I recommend listening to a 15 episode mini-series podcast called Tell Me About Your Pain by Alon Gordon (Pain Pyschologist) and Alon Ziv (Neuroscientist), then after that listen to the audio book (not ebook) by the same people called "The Way Out" (2022). Then there are 6 specific meditations by Alan Gordon on an app called Curable that I used to eliminate my chronic neck and back pain, I can dig up the link to them if you like. This same technique is what I use to react to my shallow breathing and fatigue with deeper breathing. This got me sleeping through the night.
Third, the trauma therapy (it isn't if we have trauma, it is how much), I recommend starting with the film The Wisdom of Trauma. And if that is interesting then reading In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts. Myth of Normal seems like a great book too, I haven't read it yet though but it is on my list. I did start reading Gabor's AD(H)D book Scattered Minds a while back, way before this breathing breakthrough surfaced and need to finish it, but to sum up one thing I learned I have ADD-Like symptoms and this whole shallow breathing thing I have noticed is a large part of it. Once I start conscious breathing, by ADD-like stuff reduces. I've been more motivated to actually exercise and not fall asleep doing it, and I have been working on cold-exposure therapy (What Doesn't Kill Us by Mark Carney, investigative journalist who tried to debunk Wim Hoff, ended up drinking the Koolaid, and explains why). The cold-exposure increases the chemical called norepinephrine, which is one of the chemicals that Adderall increases (along with Dopamine). There is a quote from the film "My Octopus Teacher" (fantastic film) where he says "the cold really upgrades the brain" and references him diving into the ocean without a wetsuit almost every day for a year making friends with an octopus. I really like that quote. The cold does help me think when I do it, and I am still easing into it, and getting my brain back.
All in all, I feel at a really new phase of my life, and that includes this thing called "Hope". I no longer think my fatigue is caused by my diet, and in fact I know it isn't.
I'm happy to chat about this with you or anyone else. I'm also open to saying "hi" on a real-time communication (RTC) chat here https://cal.com/ElijahLynn.
Sorry but I really tried watching that and nothing about it made me want to either a) keep watching past the first few minutes or b) accept that she actually had a point.
Which she probably did, but certainly not to the level that I'd agree watching your suggestion would be more enriching than watching the original documentary.
In fact, now I want to watch My Octopus Teacher for the 4th time, despite all the excellent alternative suggestions in this thread!
I would recommend people not to watch it and instead watch this well done critique (and criticism) titled “My Octopus Teacher & Environmental Horror” by Maggie Mae. [1]
I could’ve spent my time better if I’d watched this and avoided “My Octopus Teacher” altogether.
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whb4unrhy44
Seconded for My Octopus Teacher.
The Social Dilemma was also worth watching.
For anyone curious about the kind of intelligence exhibited by this species, I would advise to take a look at this fascinating documentary:
My Octopus Teacher https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s0LTDhqe5A
I've had several people in my life tell me after more intense studies of octopi they refuse to eat them.
While I've seen a couple of documentaries on the subject, I won't profess to know as much, but the essential argument has been that they're extremely intelligent, emotional animals. It's akin to eating a dog or cat (which might be acceptable in some parts of the world, but pretty shunned in the west).
It's convincing enough for me, I also stopped eating octopus.
A soft start if you want to research, Netflix currently has "My Octopus Teacher" streaming.
Here is a critique of My Octopus Teacher as a movie of a self-centered man who projects his issues onto an unsuspecting wild animal: "MY OCTOPUS TEACHER & Environmental Horror, An Analysis" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whb4unrhy44
this seems to be about the Netflix movie "My Octopus Teacher". It's a great watch and certainly interesting whether or not you think the octopus is bonding with the filmmaker.
Related: The documentary "My Octopus Teacher" (2020) on Netflix is delightful. It is a good show for all ages.
Yes, it seems I did misunderstand your post, because you started it with saying that after watching "My Octopus Teacher" you decided never to eat calamari again. The context of the film and the post is that cephallopods are intelligent creatures and I thought that you meant you decided never to eat callamari again because of that.
So now I'm very confused. Why did you decide never to eat calamari again? What does your decision have to do with a film about an octopus? What does any of that have to do with over-consumption?
You made your comment very confusing so I was confused. Thanks for clarifying, but it's still very confusing so don't go accusing me of having any "beef" with anyone. Just make sure your comments are easier to understand.
Just a personal comment. I used to love calamari, I'm from Scotland so seafood is plentiful and of a high standard. However I decided never to eat it again after watching "my octopus teacher" on Netflix. It's an emotive documentary clearly made to evoke feelings in the audience, it certainly changed my mind. We can't effectively measure animal intelligence compared to humans, we make decisions based on ethics and morality so I made that decision to never eat squid again.
It's clear that humans over-consume and as an "intelligent species" who can make decisions based on morality and ethics, we still collectively seem unable to logically reason this overconsumption will eventually effect us all.
Love this analysis. It reminds me of Maggie Mae's breakdown of My Octopus Teacher as eco-horror film -- it ends up exploring the same themes around language and communication that you brought up here. [0]
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whb4unrhy44
Specific time stamp for section on language (Gorillas in the Congo): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whb4unrhy44&t=1016s
> Sleep is a whole-body process of repair and optimization.
This is what I felt when I watched the Netflix documentary "My Octopus Teacher".
At some point, the octopus was vigorously attacked by a shark, which cost her a tentacle. She was bleeding and retreated to her den.
The attack made her very weak. She could no more change colors, nor get out of the den, even to get food.
After a week or so in the den, presumably sleeping, she started recovering and her arm started to regenerate.
The article mentions a series of movies that similarly make clear the potential depth and richness of animal lives, like My Octopus Teacher, or Jane. For anyone interested in similar stories, or resonated with the message of the article, I’d recommend Gunda, a new documentary about the life of a pig on a Scandinavian farm.
> I do not doubt given the choice that many people would choose to dedicate a year to daily cold water swimming and filmmaking.
No way. Most people don't like swimming, the ocean, free diving or being cold. The subset that likes all 4 and has enough dedication to do it every day for an entire year regardless rain, wind or injury and has a passion for filmmaking is very, very small. That's why this documentary is so impressive and why the footage is so rare. Because very few people who are rich enough to work on a film project for a year would ever spend their time in this way.
> a burnt-out white guy (who lives in an ocean-view villa in South Africa) spends every day filming an octopus
I don't understand why his identity is as important as the content he created. The story to me is: "cold water free diver develops a passion for open ocean swimming and bonds with an octopus while capturing rare, intimate footage of the creature's life, death and everything in between".
> Because I made what I thought was a relatively small and reasonable observation.
It's not a small or reasonable observation to me. I've never seen another documentary about a rich, white male where they need to state their privilege. So that's why I was wondering if it's something particular to this individual or more like you want anyone with privilege in any documentary to acknowledge it, otherwise you'll feel resentment towards them.
> Your response (instead of engaging with that point perhaps by arguing that My Octopus Teacher is improved by the fact that the main character seems like an out of touch "What's a banana cost? Ten dollars?" rich guy) was to bring in wild hyperbole about applying this specific observation to every one in every thing couched in the extremely broad statement "Any popular documentary is the result of privilege somewhere along the line."
Because I have no idea where you would draw the line. Is it only self-made documentaries where people have to acknowledge their privilege? The problem is way deeper than that. People with privilege decide what content options you're able to watch and which projects get funded and who makes them which is a way bigger issue than some random guy you'll never meet acknowledging his privilege or not while making an introspective nature film. If you find yourself resenting this guy, it must be rough resenting at least someone in nearly every documentary on Netflix. Almost all of them have a rich, white male at some point and I've never seen 1 acknowledge their privilege on film. And there's no mention of how he got the beach house or his family history. You're just filling in the blanks that this guy doesn't know the price of bananas when you know little to nothing about him except for that he has a nice house. There are tons of nice beach houses in CA that are super remote, precisely because people build them by hand and the roads / utilities are poor so no one wants to live there. We have no idea how much his house is worth or how desirable that location is.
> To craft a more resonant/engaging story > Because I like engaging stories that feel fully thought out.
The format of a documentary is designed to be a window into someone's reality. A good documentary shouldn't be trying to craft a message or to make someone more likable. This just happens to be a documentary about a white, rich, male, but that's incidental to the focus of the film which is why it wasn't necessary to address it. The guy had a ton of brilliantly shot underwater footage. I really don't see the point in resenting him for that.
> Really?
Yes. I do not doubt given the choice that many people would choose to dedicate a year to daily cold water swimming and filmmaking.
> And we have no idea about the financial arrangements.
Maybe it could be anything. But the story as presented in the movie is: a burnt-out white guy (who lives in an ocean-view villa in South Africa) spends every day filming an octopus.
> I don’t need all my characters to be fully self-aware or without flaws to find them engaging.
I'm not talking about all characters and I don't understand why you are.
> I didn’t assume you had an agenda. Why did you assume that?
Because I made what I thought was a relatively small and reasonable observation. Your response (instead of engaging with that point perhaps by arguing that My Octopus Teacher is improved by the fact that the main character seems like an out of touch "What's a banana cost? Ten dollars?" rich guy) was to bring in wild hyperbole about applying this specific observation to every one in every thing couched in the extremely broad statement "Any popular documentary is the result of privilege somewhere along the line."
> I meant “what’s the goal” as in “what’s the point”
To craft a more resonant/engaging story
> “why is that important to you”
Because I like engaging stories that feel fully thought out.
It seems like there is a spectrum for this sort of thing. I think I'd have a similar reaction to, say, an extremely rich person recommending that a frontline worker take a 1-month detox at an expensive yoga camp. But for me personally, "My Octopus Teacher" was pretty far away from that extreme, and I think an explicit discussion of privilege would have taken me out of the movie, so I'm glad they didn't add one.
Huh? He only has one kid- a son, who appears in a lot of the movie diving with him. I'm no expert on the filmmaker's life, but I've not heard that he 'turned his back' on his wife. In fact, you can read her feelings about his relationship with the octopus here:
https://stories.seachangeproject.com/my-octopus-teacher-and-menbsp
She ends by saying that she dives almost every day with the filmmaker.
Related: I highly recommend the documentary My Octopus Teacher
https://www.netflix.com/title/81045007
In 2020 I watched these two documentary films about animals and quite liked them:
- My Octopus Teacher
- Dancing with the Birds
Octopus is a super interesting animal. There is a beautiful movie on Netflix called My Octopus Teacher, well worth your time.
There is this Netflix movie “my octopus teacher” where the octopus develops rather advanced hunting and camouflage techniques. Like how it knows how to handle sharks or how to build a shell for itself to hunt a particular type of food. That seems quite intelligent and beyond observing humans studiously in labs.
There's a great recent documentary on Netflix called My Octopus Teacher about an octopus which displayed some of these behaviors (interspecies bonding, tactile drive, play). Another good Netflix documentary, on birds, is Beak & Brain: Genius Birds from Down Under.
I highly recommend a documentary on Netflix named, “My Octopus Teacher”. It’s really beautifully made. A man becomes “friends” with an octopus and goes to meet and observe every day for a year until she mates and dies. It’s amazing.
A new documentary on Netflix called, "My Octopus Teacher" is worth checking out.
"An unusual friendship develops between a filmmaker and an octopus living in a South African kelp forest that shares the mysteries of its world."
https://www.netflix.com/watch/81045007
I highly recommend the Netflix documentary ’My Octopus Teacher‘. This is the story of a photographer diving everyday for a year, and developing a two way bond with an octopus.
I just finished watching a Netflix documentary about an octopus. The kids loved it.
It was probably one of the most fascinating documentaries I have ever seen. What a story & some amazing footage. I could not help but think that octopus are very intelligent.
“My Octopus Teacher”
Edit: spoiler alert on the link. Watch it without reading Wikipedia. The twists and turns are part of the experience.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Octopus_Teacher
Highly recommend the documentary My Octopus Teacher on Netflix. Beautiful story of how a free diver forms a friendship of sorts with an octopus.
Preview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s0LTDhqe5A