THE VOICE ABOVE WATER
One Man's Lifelong Love Of His Ocean
“I always loved being in the middle of the ocean. Listening to the sound of the waves. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.” Those are the first words spoken in Dana Frankoff’s award-winning short documentary VOICE ABOVE WATER. These words come from the mouth of Wayan Nyo, the 90-year-old Balinese fisherman who is the focus of the documentary.
Nyo resides on an island in Indonesia whose waters are infested with plastic and trash. As a result of this, the fish he once enjoyed catching and hunting for have disappeared. Now instead of fishing for healthy fish, he fishes for plastic. There is so much plastic that it is impossible even to find any fish. “When I thought I caught a fish, it turned out to be plastic, I got mad and threw it away,” said Nyo.
Whatever plastic he collects is placed into a giant pile in an island village. Once a man offered to take the plastic to a recycling factory. Does this imply that it only happened once, which leaves me wondering how he is disposing of all the plastic? I hope he does a better job than the people who just tossed it in the ocean.
The saddest fact about this documentary is that with how polluted the earth is becoming, there are thousands of similar situations worldwide. Fish and all kinds of animals are pushed out of their environment just because people can’t throw a cup in the trash or a corporation drills a hole in the ocean.
Even though I don’t litter, the documentary still made me feel like I should be doing more to fight pollution. If only a few people think the same way and decide to act on that feeling, this documentary has done its job. You can watch VOICE ABOVE WATER on Vimeo.
