The landmark new feature film, Ocean with David Attenborough, made its Global Premier in London on 6 May, with Arksen founder Jasper Smith joining the line-up of co-producers for a star-studded evening attended by King Charles.

The powerful production delivers an enlightening story of the ocean’s beauty, its destruction and its potential for recovery. A divergence from Attenborough’s usual fare, it is hoped the film will encourage influential leaders to support significant changes in ocean conservation.

The event received global coverage, putting protection of the oceans front and centre, with the BBC billing it as the ‘greatest message Attenborough has ever told’ and the Guardian declaring it a ‘passionate case against the ruination of the seas.’

Live coverage ran across the national broadcasters throughout the evening, with highlights including BBC News at One, the 10 O’clock News, Radio 5Live, ITV and Sky News. The film was also featured on the front page of the Daily Mirror and in the Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, The Sun, Daily Star and Daily Express as well as a host of global news titles. 

King Charles leads star-studded Premier

The traditional red carpet was switched to ocean blue outside London’s Royal Festival Hall to welcome guests to an event that has the potential to become one of the landmark moments in ocean conservation.

The King posed for photos alongside Attenborough outside the venue and also took time to speak with the team behind the film, which included Smith as representative of Arksen’s charity 10% for the Ocean, one of the early funders and co-producers of the film.

The event was also attended by a long list of A-list stars including models Cara and Poppy Delevingne and Georgia May Jagger; actress Felicity Jones; actor Theo James; TV personality Penny Lancaster; astronaut Tim Peake; and singers James Blunt and Geri Halliwell Horner.

David Attenborough’s impactful message 

If there is one important piece of advice to be taken from Attenborough in this stunning new film – the launch of which coincides with him entering his 100th year on the planet – it is his poignant closing statement: “If we save the sea, we save our world.”

The film is beautiful, harrowing and inspiring in equal measure. As explained by director Colin Butfield in our behind-the-scenes article , it tells a story of ocean evolution – from Attenborough’s first scuba dive almost 70 years ago to the catastrophic decline of life in the modern day.

It explains how the ocean is vital for the planet, absorbing more CO2 and creating more Oxygen than the rainforests, but in its most dramatic scene, it delivers shocking world-first footage of how bottom trawling, which is legal around the world, devastates the ocean floor.

It ends, however, with the surprising and uplifting discovery that, as Attenborough says, “the ocean can recover faster than we had ever imagined” – and it provides evidence of just how quickly life can grow back, if protected areas are created to allow it.

Ocean conservation for future generations

The first public showing of the film was, in fact, not to the celebrity audience at the evening presentation but – notably – to a packed theatre of school children and young people specially invited to the Young Generations Premier in the afternoon.

Speaking ahead of that showing, joint producer Tony Nowlan and one of the film’s scientific advisors, Dr Enric Sala, the founder of National Geographic Pristine Seas, said they hoped the film would inspire the next generation to protect the ocean and follow in their footsteps.

UN Conference and commitment to preservation

The feature-length film, which runs to one hour and 35 minutes, took almost three years to produce and during that time the crew was kitted out with performance gear from Arksen Apparel, enabling them to film in extreme conditions from Antarctica to Hawaii.

That kit was on show throughout the day as part of an exhibition, which provided insight into the range of equipment used to capture the footage – including a huge 360-degree boom mounted camera, complex drones and even a tracking submarine.

The film will now be shown exclusively in cinemas around the world for a month before being made available to stream on Disney+ from June – a timing that is designed to coincide with UN World Oceans Day.

The hope is that the sometimes-shocking footage will encourage nations to deliver on a promise to preserve 30% of the world’s oceans from exploitation, representing a significant rise form around 3% that is currently protected in this way.

In support of these ocean conservation efforts, Arksen and 10% for the Ocean was set up with a vision to increase global funding from the current 1% of philanthropic giving to 10%, providing vital support for scientific projects all around the world.

Image credits courtesy PA Media Agency