BLUE

THREE STARS The decimation of our oceans is explored in this beautifully filmed documentary.

DOCUMENTARY #OCEANGUARDIAN

When a thirty-something man says that half of all marine life has disappeared in his lifetime, you know something is tragically wrong with the world. It’s a show-stopping moment in this beautifully produced documentary that attests to the decimation of the planet’s largest resource. BLUE is a film full of fun facts, like how plastic waste floating in the ocean will outweigh fish by 2050. Follow that through the food chain and your fish and chips contain an ever increasing percentage of plastic ready for ingestion. Of course, that assumes there will be any fish left to actually make them in the first place. And if we don’t act fast, there won’t be.

A number of eco-specialists share their professional perspectives on the state of the oceans which director Karina Holden weaves into an earnest account that’s three parts depressing to one part inspiring (hope remains, they say). Yet despite the miserable state of the seas, Holden encourages us to believe we can make a difference, that we will save them – noting that for the preservation of our own species we have no choice – wrapping her film in heart-tugging determination.

Yet as intoxicating as this documentary is, over-wrought narration and slo-mo camera work notwithstanding, nothing can erase Holden’s distressing images of finless sharks sinking to the ocean floor, or a seabird chick throwing up a stomach full of plastic rubbish. Perhaps that’s the idea – it is certainly an effective way to provoke change.