Teacher Guide
Learning goals, teaching notes, and answer keys.
View Teacher NotesPaper & online answer keysMy Octopus Teacher Movie Guide
Choose the format that fits your classroom, then explore the film through focused questions and evidence.
About the Film
A filmmaker’s repeated encounters with an octopus become a personal account of attention and connection. Separate recorded behavior from narration and examine the ethics of observation.
Movie at a Glance
- Release year
- 2020
- Genre
- Nature and personal documentary
- U.S. rating
- TV-PG (Netflix U.S. label)
- Runtime
- Approx. 85 minutes
- Director
- Pippa Ehrlich & James Reed
- Writing / format
- Documentary; no fictional screenplay
- Based on
- Craig Foster’s filmed observations and personal account
- Music
- Kevin Smuts
- Featured participants
- Craig Foster and Tom Foster (documentary participants)
- Story setting
- A South African coastal kelp forest · observations over roughly a year
Check your edition when planning class periods; cuts and playback speeds can change runtime.
Content to Preview
- Animal attacks, visible injury, predation, and the octopus’s death.
- Underwater danger and emotionally intense narration about loss.
- Discussion of personal exhaustion and distress; no required student disclosures.
Preview your edition, follow school viewing and permission policies, and provide an appropriate alternative assignment. Suggested grades 6–12 are Teach Arcade’s classroom recommendation, separate from the film’s U.S. rating.
Classroom Connections
Use scene evidence to explore the topics above. Pair historical portrayals with reliable sources, literary adaptations with their texts, and animated metaphors with appropriate factual context.
Film details, advisories & classroom context: Filmmaker credits and context · Content advisory (spoilers) · Netflix U.S. rating