Grey London Film Aims to Turns the Tide on Environmental Apathy

Premiering on Sky Atlantic tonight, The Unseen Ocean, created by Grey London and directed by D.A.R.Y.L via Pulse, is part of Volvo Car's UK sponsorship deal with the channel and highlights the car manufacturer's ambitious environmental sustainability programme. It follows one man's mission to educate the next generation about the importance of saving the seas.

Attempting to convey to his class the horrors of marine pollution, London primary school teacher Tom Franklin was shocked when he realised many of his students had no particular interest in the sea – never having experienced it first hand. 

As he takes a group of young children from south London to Porthcothan Bay on the Cornish coast, the film captures the touching moment they get to actually splash in the waves for the first time in their lives.

As well as experiencing the sensations of the ocean around them, they are also given lessons in its fragility. They collect plastic waste that’s washed up on the beaches and are taught about the impact this has on delicate marine ecosystems.  

Franklin has set up a not-for-profit organisation, Urban Oceaneers, which teaches inner-city kids how to swim and surf while promoting an understanding of marine wildlife and conservation. 

Volvo has pledged to aim for 25 per cent of the plastics used in every new Volvo car to be made from recycled material by 2025. It has also committed to removing single-use plastics from its offices and events across the globe by the end of 2019. In September, Volvo became the first and only car maker to endorse the G7 Ocean Plastics Charter, which commits governments to take concrete steps towards addressing the issue of ocean plastics pollution.

Tom Franklin said: “We’re never going run out of inner-city children, but we are going to run out of clean, pure ocean. If we put the two together, what a combination that would be, what a powerful force. We’re trying to come up with a truly humanistic approach to ocean sustainability. Helping these kids fall in love with the sea is a vital step in safeguarding our planet’s future.”