The short film “The Water will carry us home,” reveals the life cycles and evolution of enslaved humans in their return to the sea and their relationship with the Ocean itself. 

One particular moment at the end of the film shows a woman with seashells, which she then places over her ears. This moment relates to the earlier images shown throughout the film .The film itself, a beautiful piece combining watercolor artwork and visual effects, poses a stark contrast to the topic involved and the imagery created. Enslaved humans being taken from their native land across the sea. Then, their transformation from known history into myth and storytelling reveals to us that those thrown overboard are accepted by the ocean to be transformed into beings of the sea. The Goddess of the sea takes upon her struggling children and provides for them a new life, in a home we have always known. The people’s return to water – a life cycle forgotten. 

Or so we thought. 

The imagery of the woman placing the shells over her ears, experiencing connection with the Ocean, demonstrated the relationship has been present and continues to remain so. Using elements that come from the sea, listening to the sound they capture, she is expressing her roots as that of being evolved from water. Even in modern day, years that have passed since the story’s events, she remains in tune and enveloped in the ocean’s gifts.  As is expressed in the culture that the film visualizes for us, this African native community itself evolved to be one with water, a creature separate from humanity, instead enveloped in the rushing waters provided by the Goddess. Their race combined and evolved to live life in the very environment we all once began our cycles in. The very origins of human kind. The film and the woman display the connection with the Ocean as not a beginning bond of a relationship, but a sacred advancement involving one’s roots and the connection between human spirit and the Sea. The Sea is Home, and as the film displays, some of us have been able to find their way back.