‘If we save the sea, we save our world’: Public invited to free screening of Attenborough documentary

“We have drained the life from our ocean.”

Those words from Sir David Attenborough — the world’s leading natural historian and voice behind numerous highly acclaimed documentaries such as “Planet Earth” and its sequels “The Blue Planet” and “Our Planet” — are dire.

Oceans make up most of the planet and play a crucial role in people’s health and survival. They sustain life and inspire joy in people around the world.

Unfortunately, nonprofit Surfrider Foundation — which has a local chapter on Kaua‘i — says what might be the most precious natural resource we have has been abused by humans for far too long; it’s under threat from plastics, pollution and the impacts of climate change.

While his words are ominous and the writing seems to be on the wall that humans have brought oceans to the brink of collapse, Attenborough remains optimistic that the story below the waves doesn’t end here.

After seven decades of filming every aspect of the natural world, he delivered this year his greatest message of hope in his first-ever collaboration with National Geographic — the documentary “Ocean with David Attenborough.”

The public is invited to a free screening of the film starting at 7 p.m. today (Oct. 17) at Kaua‘i Community College Performing Arts Center, located at 3-1901 Kaumuali‘i Highway, in Līhuʻe.

Nonprofit Ho‘omalu Ke Kai, which translates to “Protect the Sea,” is hosting the special premiere event.

The Kaua‘i grassroots organization is focused on protecting Kauaʻi’s marine ecosystems and inspiring ocean stewardship, often conducting community beach cleanups and other conservation efforts.

“If you love the ocean, there’s always some way to help,” Capt. Tara Leota of Kauaʻi Ocean Awareness, which works with Ho‘omalu Ke Kai on ocean stewardship initiatives, told Kaua‘i Now in June.

The documentary — which National Geographic calls “stunning” — brilliantly bares the beauty of the sea while at the same time featuring the ways in which humans are depleting its riches.

“What you’re getting, even if you’ve seen versions of this before, is an always welcome thing: a well-researched, visually sumptuous celebration of nature and examination of the ways we’re ruining it,” said Olly Richards with Time Out in a review of the film.

Attenborough explores the planet’s undersea habitats, revealing the greatest age of ocean discovery and emphasising the vital importance of the Earth’s oceans while exposing problems and highlighting opportunities for marine life recovery.

The film allows viewers to reflect on the significance of the world’s oceans, threats they face and how to protect them, with Attenborough drawing on his lifetime of knowledge to reveal ways to restore these vast, interconnected waterways.

“If we save the sea, we save our world,” Attenborough says in the film trailer. “The ocean — our final frontier.”

The film argues that oceans support the planet — they are humanity’s greatest ally against climate catastrophe — and shows how they are now at a crossroads.

Attenborough shares through “spectacular sequences” of coral reefs, kelp forests, yellow-fin tuna, humpback whales, the open ocean and more why this blue ball in space we call home is kept stable and flourishing because of healthy oceans.

“While our planet’s future can sometimes feel bleak, efforts to conserve it offer glimmers of hope,” says the National Geographic website.

Producer Toby Nowlan produced the documentary — which opened May 8 in theaters globally coinciding with the leading nature historian’s 99th birthday — and told BBC that it is not your typical Attenborough film.

“This is not about seeing brand new natural history behaviors. It is the greatest message he’s ever told,” said Nowlan.

The documentary premiered in June on National Geographic Channel and began streaming June 8 — World Ocean Day — on Disney+ and Hulu.

United Kingdom publication The Guardian in a review called “Ocean with David Attenborough” a visual marvel like all of Attenborough’s work, “governed by his own matchless authority and striking a steady tonal balance between warning and hope.”

The newspaper added that the film is “absorbing and compelling.”

“A gorgeously-shot film that celebrates the unique beauty and diversity that comes from dipping our heads beneath the surface of the water — while also addressing the state of the world’s seas. It’s dire,” wrote Vicky Jessop with The London Evening Standard in another review.

James Jackson with The Times in the United Kingdom described Attenborough’s film as “environmental filmmaking at its most powerful,” adding in his review that at times, “it comes at you like a sledgehammer blow,” but still — crucially — finds optimism.

Surfrider Maui volunteer Kristina McHugh wrote in a July 2024 Instagram post that one of the first Hawaiian sayings she learned was “Mālama i ke kai a e mālama ke kai iāʻoe.”

“Which means ‘Care for the ocean and the ocean will care for you,’” McHugh wrote.

Attenborough hopes his film sparks others to become stewards of the world’s oceans and care for them so they can continue to care for the world.

“After a lifetime of filming the natural world, I now understand the most important place on Earth is not on land,” he says in the film trailer. “It’s life at its most mesmerizing, and we must open our eyes to what is happening right now below the waves.”

Visit the Kaua‘i Community College Performing Arts Center website or email to greg3512@hawaii.edu for additional information about tonight’s free screening of Attenborough’s film.