Sundance: 'Blackfish' asks why killer whales kill

[marmar]

[font size="1"] Tilikum the orca dragged a trainer to her death in 2010 at SeaWorld Orlando.
Sara Hoffman photo[/font]


from the Toronto Star:


By Linda Barnard
Movies Writer


PARK CITY, UTAH—Opening with a heart-stopping 2010 video of SeaWorld Orlando senior trainer Dawn Brancheau being dragged to her death by Tilikum, an orca known for killing before, Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s documentary Blackfish is enough to make anybody think twice about the wisdom of turning whales into performers.

Blackfish, which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, relies on often-disturbing video shot by various park guests and trainers that shows orcas turning on staff in what experts in the film explain are not acts of aggression, but rather frustration at being held in, as one describes it, “a concrete bathtub.”

In fact, there are 70 documented cases of attacks by orcas at marine parks globally, including at the now-shuttered Sealand of the Pacific in Victoria, B.C., in 1991. Two women who witnessed the fatal attack on part-time trainer Keltie Byrne describe the incident in horrifying detail. The whale responsible for her death, Tilikum, was then sold to SeaWorld.

The trainers interviewed in Blackfish, many of whom came to SeaWorld with no prior experience or knowledge of killer whales, speak, occasionally tearfully, about the sense of responsibility they felt for the animals they worked with, even after attacks or close calls.

SeaWorld refused to be interviewed for the doc. .........................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/article/1318160--sundance-blackfish-asks-why-killer-whales-kill

[randome]

1. We definitely need to rethink our zoos and sea worlds.