The curtain covering the truth behind whale training is pulled back by Blackfish, a gripping documentary from director Gabriela Cowperthwaite. Using numerous killer whale trainers as prime interview subjects, this documentary speaks to the unnatural treatment of massive animals who are captured for the sake of being stunt-performing stars. By providing the facts without turning the film into a soap box, Blackfish ensures that its viewers will never go to Sea World again.
This is Cowperthwaite’s second directed feature. She previously helmed the documentary City Lax: An Urban Lacrosse Story, and has co-produced programs for the History Channel.
In an exclusive interview, I talked to Cowperthwaite about her film, the Avatar-like fascination with Sea World, why some activists are more upset with her than Shamu fans, and more.
Blackfish opens in Chicago on July 26.
There’s a scene in a “Simpsons” episode (“Brother from the Same Planet”) in which a Sea World-parody is shown,...
This is Cowperthwaite’s second directed feature. She previously helmed the documentary City Lax: An Urban Lacrosse Story, and has co-produced programs for the History Channel.
In an exclusive interview, I talked to Cowperthwaite about her film, the Avatar-like fascination with Sea World, why some activists are more upset with her than Shamu fans, and more.
Blackfish opens in Chicago on July 26.
There’s a scene in a “Simpsons” episode (“Brother from the Same Planet”) in which a Sea World-parody is shown,...
- 7/25/2013
- by Nick Allen
- The Scorecard Review
★★★★☆ Newly positioned as one of this year's most anticipated American documentaries following rave reviews at Sundance, Gabriela Cowperthwaite's Blackfish (2013) makes its way to the festival's London incarnation this week ahead of a late July theatrical release. Cowperthwaite's slight naïveté as only a second-time feature director (having deputised back in 2010 with City Lax: An Urban Lacrosse Story) may slip through the cracks on rare occasions, but is more than compensated for by what is, as a whole, an exceptionally engrossing, at times heartrending study into captive orca maltreatment in the United States. Read more »...
- 4/25/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
“Blackfish” tells the story of Tilikum, a performing whale that killed several people while in captivity. Along the way, director-producer Gabriela Cowperthwaite compiles shocking footage and emotional interviews to explore the creature’s dual nature, the lives and losses of the trainers and the pressures brought to bear by the sea-park industry. Indiewire has an exclusive clip from the U.S. documentary competition film, which will first screen Jan. 19 at 9 pm at Temple Theatre. Cowperthwaite has made documentaries for Espn, DirecTV, National Geographic, and the Discovery and History channels. Her inner-city gang documentary “City Lax: An Urban Lacrosse Story” was recently acquired by Espn and DirecTV. Check out the clip, below.
- 1/16/2013
- by Jay A. Fernandez
- Indiewire
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