They're Just Like Us
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ECO-FRIENDLY INNOVATIONS In honor of Earth Day, far-out and forward- HIGH, LOW + EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN Culture thinking sustainability innovations. » P.46 FILM They’re Just Like Us James Cameron’s Secrets of the Whales reveals an Avatar-like realization VISITING NOMADS Sperm whales often travel great distances, stopping along the way to interact with local whales. Whales are social creatures, so if one “gets LUIS LAMAR/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC FOR DISNEY+; TOP RIGHT: COURTETSY OF PLENTY COURTETSY RIGHT: TOP GEOGRAPHIC FOR DISNEY+; LAMAR/NATIONAL LUIS stranded, the others go to help.” 40 NEWSWEEK.COM APRIl 30, 2021 NEWSWEEK.COM 41 Culture FILM They have singing compeTi- 12 countries and six continents, CAST AND CREW Clockwise from left: James Cameron exits the Deepsea tions, isolate themselves by dia- including both polar regions, to show Challenger after a dive; breaching lects, stick to unique food preferences, us their complex lives that few have humpback whale calf off Vava’u, Tonga; are led by generations of older, wiser witnessed so intimately until now. Brian Skerry prepares to freedive and photograph sperm whales off the coast of matriarchs, celebrate their tribe’s These close encounters are the Dominica; and a humpback whale shows identity, choose different parenting work of underwater photographer, its fluke before a deep dive in Antarctica. techniques, and gracefully mourn National Geographic Explorer at their dead. Large Brian Skerry, as he tells the sto- They’re just like us. ries of the creatures he’s been docu- in perfect coordination—almost like As generations of fans eagerly await menting, and even been accepted by, a dance.” a sequel to the biggest box-office hit for over 40 years. The biggest secret about whales? in history, Avatar, its Hollywood Although he might be best known They have complex lives, families and heavyweight director James Cam- for his Oscar-winning films such as culture, much like humans, says Skerry, eron reveals some big secrets about Titanic and Avatar and science fiction adding he thinks of it like “the neigh- another mysterious world he’s putting blockbusters such as Aliens and Ter- borhoods of New York City at the turn on screen. This world is also inhabited minator, Cameron is also a National of the last century with many enclaves by a highly cognitive, sentient species Geographic sea explorer and conser- of different cultures and languages. with huge brains, intricate social vationist. In his documentary Deep- Orca have a preference for ‘interna- structures and complex communica- sea Challenge, the film director made tional cuisine.’ The orca in New Zea- tions skills. a record-breaking solo dive to the land prefer sting rays, while the orca This is another threatened “Pan- Earth’s deepest point. in Norway like herring.” dora” that needs to be understood Merging his passions for cut- “Moms teach their calves the skills in order to be protected, ting-edge technology they will need to survive, but they’re but this world isn’t from and ocean exploration, also teaching them their cultural one of Cameron’s science B Y Cameron teams up with traditions. Humpbacks have ‘singing fiction blockbusters. It’s Skerry, who won an competitions.’ Beluga whales visit a right here on Earth, and KATHLEEN RELLIHAN “Underwater Oscar” in ‘summer resort’ each year and play the magical beings that @k_rellihan 2019 from the Academy games. Whales celebrate their identity roam and rule this world of Underwater Arts and and grieve for the dead. They are an are cetaceans—or as they’re more Sciences, to uncover the secret world alien intelligence sharing this planet commonly referred to, whales. of whales, with the help of advanced with us.” Secrets of the Whales, National Geo- underwater technology. It gives us difficult hardship at sea, in very hard when a beluga pod adopts a narwhal.. They’re Just Like Us graphic’s new Disney+ documentary insight into their way of life, and the diving conditions. A lot of stuff I “How do you get close to these big When a group of humpback whales The Harm of Humans series premiering on April 22, is pro- extraordinary culture of five different wouldn’t know how to do, so I get to animals and document them in such that are not related to each other So while Cameron was filming the duced by Cameron and narrated by whale species: orcas, humpbacks, belu- celebrate his [Skerry’s] artistry and his a dramatic and intimate way?” asks come together from various places Avatar sequel, Skerry was doing the his longtime sci-fi film partner,Avatar gas, narwhals and sperm whales. craftsmanship,” says Cameron, who is Cameron. “[Skerry] got them to trust around the world, Cameron describes fieldwork and capturing intimate and Avatar 2 award-winning actress also a free diver and a scuba diver. him. They allowed him to get close.” it as “a bit like an annual gathering of whale encounters on film—including and conservationist Sigourney Weaver. Getting Close to the Whales Skerry tells Newsweek the chal- In the first episode, an orca even friends that get together to hang out some nail-biting ones, “You’re not out “I’ve been fascinated for years by Cameron shares in the foreword to lenges of filming underwater offers to share his meal with Sher- and have a beer” but instead “do their there observing whales for very long whales, and this was an opportunity Skerry’s Secrets of the Whales compan- included bad weather and finding ry—a bloody stingray that he politely bubble net feeding strategy together before you see the stress and injuries for me to follow my curious nose into ion photobook (National Geographic, elusive whales on the open sea, “We declines. impacts of human civilization have on an area that’s not my area of expertise April 6) that the two men share a sim- can go weeks or months with no “We have fantasies that they have them,” Cameron tells Newsweek, not- but certainly an area of curiosity and ilar drive to explore and create in the sightings.” these very complex, emotional lives ing a rescue filmed when a National fascination, and bring a kind of story- ocean depths: “We both grew up in “So while three years sounds like and intelligence, but now we’re see- “The great whales—the Geographic diver intervened to assist teller’s perspective to it,” Cameron tells landlocked, working-class towns, but a lot of time, in the world of filming ing the evidence of what we kind of other sentient beings an orca entangled in a fisherman’s Newsweek via Zoom video. were drawn to the sea,” writes Cam- whales, it is barely enough.” SOTW hoped and instinctually believed to that have the misfortune rope and in danger of drowning. Filmed over three years, this epic eron, adding that they both got their filming captured many firsts though: be true about them,” says Cameron, As Weaver narrates this harrowing four-part docuseries follows the mys- scuba certifications in YMCA pools. a sperm whale calf feeding, and even adding that Skerry now has the foot- of sharing this big moment, she adds that nearly a thou- CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: HAYES BAXLEY/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC FOR DISNEY+; MARK MARK GEOGRAPHIC FOR DISNEY+; BAXLEY/NATIONAL HAYES LEFT: TOP FROM CLOCKWISE terious creatures across every ocean, “It was three years of painstakingly a cross-species adoption is recorded DE NEEF STEVE BRIAN SKERRY; COLLECTION; GEOGRAPHIC IMAGE THIESSEN/NATIONAL age to prove it. spaceship with us.” sand of these air-breathing mammals 42 NEWSWEEK.COM APRIl 30, 2021 NEWSWEEK.COM 43 Culture FILM die every day tied up in fishing lines. the war between the takers and the and that they pass on ancestral tradi- “The big male orca could easily kill the caretakers,” Cameron continues.”The tions, we can begin to understand how diver, but he seems to understand…” takers see nature is that which we very special the natural world is, and says the Avatar actress in her iconic exploit, and that which we can make that we are not alone.” otherworldly voice. a profit from.” “Pretty much everything we’re doing “So ask yourself, are you a taker or a The Avatar Touch as a civilization is injurious to them,” caretaker? Are you voting for a taker Cameron’s Avatar was referred to as Cameron says, from toxic water pol- or a caretaker?” Cameron adds that “the most epic piece of environmental lutants to sound pollution—from seis- answers aren’t always black and white, advocacy ever captured on celluloid.” mic testing to military sonar—that’s and are perhaps a “bit gray.” And he uses the same power of sto- highly toxic to whales who see their “If you use that sort of litmus test as rytelling to not hit us over the head world by sound and use echolocation a way to guide yourself through deci- with advocacy in Secrets of the Whales. to hunt their prey. sions, then you’re a responsible citizen Instead, he invites us into their world This sound pollution is related to a of the planet and you’re taking care of to see how similar we are to these crea- lot of whale stranding, says Cameron, the other citizens on the planet, which tures, in the hopes that if we can relate explaining that when a whale’s hear- are the great whales—the other sen- to and also be awed by them, we will ing is damaged, it can’t hunt or see tient beings that have the misfortune care about saving their homes and pre- properly, so it gets stranded.