Michael Casey’s review published on Letterboxd:
Olivia Wyatt’s ethereal documentary captures a disappearing present in hopes of preserving the past. Living and diving with the Moken — a group of seafarers island hopping between Burma and Thailand — Wyatt gains access to the Moken’s daily lives, rituals, culture, history, mythology and music.
Sailing a Sinking Sea is a living document of a dying people. The Moken’s way of life is disappearing rapidly due primarily to climate change, though Wyatt smartly does not lay it on the viewers too heavily. Instead, she allows a Moken to recount the story of the five apocalyptic waves that will come and wipe them out.
Wyatt applies layer upon layer of visual texture and imagery on the viewer, making them painfully aware of what will be gone when the Moken leave this planet. This is documentary making by way of Terrence Malick, and it is effective. With no main protagonists to follow and no talking heads to assign the narration, Wyatt manages to capture a collective voice and a collected vision. The Moken may leave us, but thanks to Wyatt’s anthropology, they won’t disappear completely.