Our oceans are a gateway to the unknown — but the creatures at home in their mysterious depths are more like us than we could possibly imagine. From the Emmy Award-winning filmmakers behind Our Great National Parks comes an unprecedented five-part opportunity to meet the awe-inspiring animals that dwell above, inside, and deep beneath the great current that powers and sustains everything on Earth.

Join us for a special advance screening of “Pacific,” the first episode in the Netflix “Our Oceans” series, narrated by former President Barack Obama, on Tuesday, Nov. 19, at North Gate Hall’s LMC: 5:30 pm reception, 6:30 pm screening and 7:30 pm panel with Professor Jason Spingarn-Koff, Knight Chair of Climate Journalism at UC Berkeley.

About the Series

Our planet’s five oceans are driven by a single, all-powerful engine: the “Global Ocean Current,” a thousand-year phenomenon that links their diverse ecosystems into one giant lifeforce, fueling existence as we know it. From the tiny, tenacious cuttlefish to the gracefully enormous blue whale, every ocean-dwelling creature relies on that current to provide the resources they require to survive. A lonely puffin awaiting his mate in the North Atlantic is linked to the bioluminescent spectaculars off Southern California; bottlenose dolphins in the Indian Ocean frolic in the same waters as polar bear cubs in the Arctic. As the current flows past clownfish circling colorful coral reefs in the Western Pacific to the frigid Antarctic ice floes of chinstrap penguins and crabeater seals, it carries with it valuable nutrients, newborn life, man-made dangers, and hope for the future.

Narrated by President Barack Obama, this five-part documentary from Freeborne Media — the Emmy Award-winning team behind Our Great National Parks — takes viewers on a 75,000-mile cruise across and beneath the oceans as they are today, giving us unprecedented access to some of the most unexplored realms of our planet. Using cutting-edge scientific research and newly-developed underwater filmmaking technology, the series overflows with stunning action sequences, eye-popping drone footage, intimate seabed closeups, and countless never-before-seen animal behaviors: Sea bream playing tennis? Humpback whales staging heists? An octopus packing heat? It’s a literal deep dive into the emotional, relatable lives of the most magical, resourceful, and resilient creatures on Earth, as they face new challenges and develop astounding skills made necessary by the changing waters around them. Our Oceans invites us to care about these plucky heroes, with whom we’ve got a surprising amount in common — and not a moment too soon, as their fates are inextricably linked with our own.

Presented in partnership with Netflix and the Berkeley Center for Ocean Futures.