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Overlooked & Underrated Docs & Features
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México Pelágico: Young Eco Activists Saving Our Oceans ‘pelagic’ – of or relating to the open sea.
Let’s face it. The narrator’s voice doesn’t fit the tone of this film. And sometimes it’s not clear who he’s talking about. Who is going where? Is this an organization? Some kind of formal group? If so, what or who are they called? I wanted more context information from this film.
But, there’s a reason why “México Pelágico” has five full stars next to its Netflix title. Two reasons, that is. It is inspiring and beautiful.
After viewing, I consulted the film’s English language website to find answers to my questions.
If I understand correctly, there’s this organization called (in English) Pelagic Life. It must be based in Mexico—by virtue of the title and language of the film. But, there is no contact information on the organization’s website. One can, however, fill out a volunteer application form and submit it through the site’s internal service.
In any case, again, there’s this ‘team’ called Pelagic Life, and they are dedicated to “documenting awesome sea-life phenomenon” (sic). This team had an inciting incident. They were observing a group of sharks dinning on a ball of sardines. (First time I’d seen sharks doing that.) They discovered a shark that had taken bait off of a hook. The hook was attached to a rope which, in turn, was attached to a buoy. The shark was slowly dying as it struggled against the rope. This is the manner local fishermen use to capture sharks for slaughter and sale. The young people were not aware of this method. They struggled with and rescued the shark from the hook.
The young people’s horror sparked a transformation of their goal of exploration to one of activism.
This film’s story is heart-warming and totally inspiring. Many of the undersea high quality images were new and revelatory to me—and I’ve seen a lot of nature programs in the last five decades. The young people are charming, and they have already made significant differences in the oceans around Mexico.
And, that’s the reason Netflix viewers have given this film five full stars.
According to the website there’s going to be a “México Pelágico 2”. If anyone from Pelagic Life is reading this review, I hope you will consider my input on the production. So, for instance, I would have spelled it ‘phenomena.’
Note: When accessing the film’s English language website, scroll down after accessing each page to find the substance of that page.