YO-HANCHA
Streaming to fill the void
Yo-Han Cha turns to online viewing to sate his frustrated appetite for diving ; he has two strong recommendations
Almost as soon as one lockdown
ended , it seemed like another began . I ’ m hoping that by the time this is published we ’ ll have a better idea of when we can have a little more freedom again and perhaps then the optimists among us start can start tentatively dreaming about going diving again . But how to fill the void created by the absence of diving ? Everyone ’ s been finding different ways to do that . I ’ m fortunate to be able to work from home and there ’ s been a correlation between the lack of diving and the amount of overtime I ’ ve put in . I ’ ve rediscovered computer games , old and new . The inner nerd in me is alive and well ! In common with many others , I ’ ve been streaming a lot these days . Whether it be TV series or films , I ’ ve found myself subscribed to almost all the main streaming platforms . In among the hundreds and thousands of titles available , I found two documentary films set in the sea that I really enjoyed . Strangely , they were not documentaries about diving in clear blue tropical waters and coral reefs . Weirdly , neither of them involves actual scuba diving , although perhaps it isn ’ t quite so weird bearing in mind how inaccurately Hollywood portrays our sport . The first was Last Breath , first released in 2019 . Despite being a keen cinema goer when I was allowed to , I wasn ’ t aware of its existence until I heard whispers of it on my social media . So , one night , having nothing better to do , I watched it and wondered what had taken me so long . Without trying to give away too many spoilers , it ’ s an interview-led documentary about a commercial diver who gets stranded at the bottom of the North Sea with five minutes of breathing gas remaining . Perhaps because I grew up in Aberdeen and not unfamiliar with the North Sea winds and perhaps because I ’ ve dived in the UK where it ’ s cold and dark ( although nowhere near the depths commercial divers go to ) but this film really hooked me in and took me on a powerful emotional rollercoaster . The fact that it is a documentary rather than a work of fiction had me transfixed until the very end .
The second was My Octopus Teacher , filmed on the other side of the world in South Africa . This one was released during lockdown and it ’ s about a man who over the course of a year documents his extraordinary relationship with a wild common octopus . I found it utterly heartwarming and – for me – quite distinct from run-of-the-mill wildlife documentaries . What sets it apart ? Well , all the action takes place in a South African kelp forest near Simon ’ s town on the Cape Peninsula , which is exposed to the cold Benguela current . It reminded me much of diving in the UK , with our own cold waters and kelp forests , and that made me love the film even more . Equally important , it was filmed while snorkelling and freediving , and it depicts filmmaker Craig Foster ’ s own growing relationship with the sea after a trauma in his personal life . If you ’ re still looking to fill some time and haven ’ t watched either of these , I ’ d definitely recommend them . Hopefully they ’ ll fill part of the void in our lives and help you feel a little more optimistic about the future . �
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