Filmmaker Finds An Unlikely Underwater Friend In 'My Octopus Teacher'

"A few years ago, South African documentary filmmaker Craig Foster felt burnt out from years of working on arduous nature films. Needing a reset, he returned to the underwater kelp forests off the southwest tip of Cape Town."

"'My earliest memories, my deepest and most powerful memories were of this incredible coast and diving in what I call 'my magical childhood forest,' ' Foster says. 'It is one of the greatest ecosystems on this planet.'"

"Foster vowed to dive — without a wetsuit or oxygen tank — every day for a year into the chilly waters near where he grew up. The ocean was sometimes as cold as 46 degrees, but his body gradually adapted."

"'Day after day, I slowly started to get my energy back and realized that there was this whole new way of looking at this underwater forest. And I started to come alive again,' he says."

"The waters were teeming with sea creatures, but Foster says his encounters with one particular octopus stood out. Over a series of dives, the octopus began coming out of her den to hunt or explore while Foster watched."

"'That's when I realized: This animal trusts me. She no longer sees me as a threat, and her fear changes to curiosity,' he says. "That's when the real excitement comes and you think, 'Oh, my goodness, I'm being let into the secret world of this wild animal' — and that's when you feel on fire.'"