Tropic Sprockets / She Is the Ocean

By Ian Brockway

The ocean has been a subject of literature and film for centuries from Poe and Melville to Hemingway and the Surrealist poets. It has been a source of awe and inspiration.

In a new documentary “She Is the Ocean” by Inna Blokhina, the ocean is presented as is, a force of nurturing life. The film chronicles several women—divers, dancers, surfers and explorers— and each of them receive creativity and power from this empowering, giving force.

It opens with Keala Kennelly, a surfer who was told she would never be good enough simply because she is a female. The ridiculous opinion only made her try harder and succeed.

There is Coco Ho, a Hawaiian surfer that was born to surf since the age of 9. Ho lives and breathes the ocean.

There is Cinta Hansel, the youngest surfer in the film, driven to face the waves and spurred on by her impassioned father who pensively contemplates his daughter’s aquatic future, her wishes and her fears.

We see Ocean Ramsey, an environmentalist and diver who states it is possible to touch and interact with sharks as long as respect is observed beforehand. This has generated controversy in some academic circles. No matter what you think of her, Ocean is to be commended for her efforts in shark conservation.

Free diver Rose Molina appears. She is obsessed with the ocean. Molina curls her body backward and forward able to make calligraphy within the sea.

Cliff diver Anna Bader works though her fear, divining the ocean currents and rhythms, if something does not look right she won’t go in. Her goal is to be graceful upon the water.

Champion surfer Jeannie Chesser laments and is wistful of the ocean’s taking her son Todd, in a surfing accident. Still, Chesser carries forward, never to forsake the blue depths.

Finally, there is Dr Sylvia Earle, an oceanic astronaut who pleads—rightly so— for the ocean’s health in the wake of animal slaughter, chemicals and plastic. She is only one of the few people who have attempted to reach the ocean floor, setting a record at 1,250 feet deep. Earle says that the ocean’s destiny is in our hands and our very life depends on it.

The nine women in the film make yogic patterns upon the water. They are all collectively in tune, seeming to be ocean’s instrument.

The ocean itself is a character in the film churning with a liquid energy and spirit. Restless and tranquil all at once.

“She Is the Ocean” is sure to capture environmentalists but it will also captivate fans of character study films. From the very first plunge of Ocean Ramsey into shark residential waters to the initial somatic writing of Rose Molina upon the deeps, one is irresistibly compelled.

Write Ian at [email protected]

[livemarket market_name="KONK Life LiveMarket" limit=3 category=“” show_signup=0 show_more=0]