Doc Explores the Universal Need to Be Understood

The social lives of animals enthrall the human thoughts. Finding qualities that resemble us in different species has the ability, it appears, to make us really feel linked to one thing past our mortal insignificance. It additionally amplifies our compassion for these creatures.

Proof of this obsession to anthropomorphize them, or at the very least to mirror ourselves in these traits, is that this yr alone we’ve already seen two documentaries on the tune of whales: A middling effort in final month’s “Fathom,” and an infinitely extra partaking exploration of the historical past of our interactions with the cetaceans in director Joshua Zeman’s “The Loneliest Whale: The Search for 52.”

To map out the broader subjects of this human-whale relationship, Zeman anchors his narrative on a single whale that has prompted a web-based frenzy and puzzled scientists for many years. No one has seen it, however they’ve heard it. Nicknamed “52” as a result of its tune registers at 52 Hertz, this mysterious marine mammal is the one one whose voice may be detected at that frequency. This means he (solely the males sing) can’t talk with different whales as a result of they’ll’t hear his pitch. A language barrier of types emerged.

Rather than resigning himself to an unseen place, Zeman shouldn’t be solely the narrator but in addition the pressure that materialized a brand new expedition to seek for the elusive 52. For years, the notion that this whale restlessly makes an attempt to speak with out a buddy to reply tantalized him. Throughout the movie, he doesn’t allow us to neglect that his personal long-standing fixation with what hides below the ocean is a significant motivation.

Although he by no means discloses the place the assets got here from, as soon as the filmmaker confirms there’s an opportunity 52 is someplace off the California coast, he assembles a workforce of scientists and costly gear for a weeklong search. This narrative by means of line within the current is persistently interspersed with historic context or sidebars on associated points that transcend the worldwide endearment with the singular specimen.

One of these sidebars includes how we grew to become conscious of the sounds whales emit accidentally, when the U.S. Navy developed a sound surveillance system (recognized now as SOSUS) to intercept submarines in the course of the Cold War. This expertise, and the fabric they captured, later grew to become helpful for oceanographers and researchers such because the late Bill Watkins, who in 1992 was the primary one to listen to 52. At that time, not even the particular species of this anomalous being, whether or not Blue or Fin, was recognized.

As against “Fathom,” the place the heady concepts on the whales’ underwater reverberations are by no means grounded by means of their real-world penalties, right here, the director and his human topics make a case for the way our information of the undersea mammals’ habits has altered a few of our harmful practices for the higher. They expound on tangible explanation why we collectively needs to be invested, as a substitute of dealing in full abstraction.

A chief instance is the 1970 album “Songs of the Humpback Whale” by biologist Roger Payne, which ignited a motion that significantly decreased the variety of whales killed. Hearing them sing linked with the final inhabitants like nothing earlier than, and the album went multi-platinum and to this present day stays the best-selling nature recording.

Sharply edited by Aaron Crozier (“Jakob’s Wife”) to keep up the viewer’s consideration by means of its many folds, “The Loneliest Whale” integrates archival pictures, new interviews with consultants and pictures of Zeman’s laborious mission with a large workforce of individuals chasing teams of whales and listening in on their exchanges.

Since the one clue they’ve is 52’s distinctive voice, loud industrial ships are a significant disruption to their procedures. Most notably, relating to the visible elements, the filmmaker additionally banks video from cameras positioned immediately on the whales’ our bodies to…