How My Octopus Teacher Depicts Healthy Masculinity
In My Octopus Teacher, documentary filmmaker Craig Foster models healthy masculinity by showing us a trusting, gentle, and emotionally fulfilling bond with an octopus.

1940. Victor Leizer, a young Jewish boy from Belleville, takes to the road to join his parents. There he meets Bernard Mirande, another young boy. But after being captured by the Gestapo, he is sent to the camps, where he becomes Commandant Braumann's scapegoat. But his adventures are just beginning...
In My Octopus Teacher, documentary filmmaker Craig Foster models healthy masculinity by showing us a trusting, gentle, and emotionally fulfilling bond with an octopus.
The film centers around two young women, Becca and Sam, who were once high school sweethearts until they reconnect in their town.
The movie opens with an empty house, cameras pan around from the perspective of what viewers are confused about at first, but turns out to be a spirit living in the home.
Alongside A Drowning Man, I Signed The Petition, 3 Logical Exits, and A World Not Ours, A Man Returned continues to paint a realistic portrait of the Refugee Crisis that eschews the Western gaze and stereotype. These are real portraits painted by a director with lived experience, cultural connection and an amazing eye for visuals.
A few episodes in, I realized the most prominent theme of In The Long Run wasn't culture, race or even finding independence--but the idea of belonging.
The more biting satire is reserved for those on top of the power structure, such as the police, while those occupying lower levels are given more nuance and likability, even if they operate on the wrong side of the law. This principle gives Deep Cover its heart.