Netflix’s Our Oceans: Everything we know so far

Netflix's Our Oceans is a documentary series produced by Freeborne Media, Wild Space Productions and Higher Ground Productions, who have also produced the Emmy-nominated docuseries, Our Great National Parks. Former President of the United States Barack Obama narrates both of these documentaries.

Our Oceans is a five-part docuseries that is set to release on the streaming service on November 20, 2024.

The documentary covers the "conveyor belt", or global ocean current, that runs beneath the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean, and the Arctic Ocean.

It's the latest documentary in a long line of collaborations Barack and Michelle Obama have set up with Netflix, which began when Higher Ground Productions was established on May 22, 2018.

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Our Oceans focuses on the "five oceans"

The five major oceans of the world are the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic, Indian, and Southern Oceans. They comprise the vast majority of the water on planet Earth's surface.

The variations in the temperature and salinity of these oceans result in the formation of deep-sea ocean currents that are known as nature's "conveyor belt". Marine life is heavily dependent on this conveyor belt for its survival, and by extension, so is Earth's biodiversity.

The oceans are home to a wide variety of lifeforms, such as cuttlefish, blue whales, and sea urchins. Our Oceans takes viewers both across the widths and into the depths of the oceans on a 75,000-mile journey.

Our Oceans relies on cutting-edge research, as well as filmmaking technology, to provide an up-to-date and intimate look at the state of Earth's oceans, and the life that teems within them. As former President Obama puts it, "You'll never be the same once you've seen it from below".

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Our Oceans is President Barack Obama's latest collaboration with Netflix

Former President Obama has worked extensively with Netflix. (Image via Netflix)

Former President Barack Obama has worked extensively with Netflix ever since the launch of his media company, Higher Ground Productions. The production company works with Netflix to produce both scripted and unscripted projects, often with the direct involvement of Obama.

Higher Ground Productions debuted with American Factory, a 2019 film directed by Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar. The subject of the documentary was a manufacturing plant belonging to the Chinese company Fuyao. The factory was located in Moraine, a place near Daytona, Ohio.

In 2020, Higher Ground Productions released the documentary Becoming, which followed Michelle Obama as she went on tour to promote her 2018 memoir of the same name. The documentary was directed by Nadia Hallgren and pieced together from footage recorded during Michelle Obama's book tour.

In April 2022, Higher Ground Productions branched out into nature documentaries with the release of Our Great National Parks, which focused on the national parks around the world, and the role they played in preserving each country's local wildlife and biodiversity. Like with Our Oceans, the documentary film was narrated by Barack Obama.

Aside from their work with Netflix, Higher Ground Productions also signed a multi-year exclusive contract with Spotify for audio productions, which included podcasts such as Michelle Obama: The Light Podcast, Renegades: Born In The USA, The Big Hit Show: Twilight, and The Big Hit Show: To Pimp a Butterfly.

The contract expired in June 2022, with Billboard reporting that the production company had since signed another multi-year exclusive contract with Audible.

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Our Oceans will stream exclusively on Netflix on November 20, 2024.