Argumentative Essay On Black Fish

Documentaries are a non-fiction films that in some way capture, or document reality; they are often created to display or reveal an either unusual or hidden perspective. Blackfish is a documentary directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, which reveals the story of Tilikum, a killer whale who was held captive at Seaworld Orlando, and killed one of his trainers, Dawn Brancheau. It follows the aftermath of the events of Brancheau’s death and both the economic and social impacts on Seaworld, and the impact on xparks similar to Seaworld. Louie Psihoyos’ 2009 documentary, The Cove, follows a group of activists who travel to Taiji, Japan in an effort to expose the thousands of dolphins who are captured and slaughtered each year. It follows Ric O’Barry,

Blackfish begins with a black background and the audio of the 911 calls made when Dawn Brancheau was attacked by a killer whale, Tilikum, this immediately introduces the focal theme of the documentary. The black background and 911 audio then switches to a video of a performer interacting with a killer whale during a show from inside of the tank, which looks as if the performer is getting attacked. The black background and show footage then switch between each other until the 911 calls end. The exposition ends with the footage from the show showing the successful trick with the performer and the killer whale. Both the audio of the 911 calls made about Dawn Brancheau’s attack and the footage in the tank of the performer and the killer whale, make the viewers feel on edge due to the horrific nature of both elements, and the movement between the two scenes builds up an uncomfortable and scared feeling. However these feelings then become more positive when they see the successful outcome of the trick. This contrast between the gruesome death of Dawn Brancheau, with the whimsical, fantasy-like aura of the killer whale shows at Seaworld, which reflects the entire subject of the documentary. Alternatively, The Cove begins with a landscape shot of Taiji’s

The narration in Blackfish does not employ ‘voice-of-God’ narration, and is instead done purely through the dialogue from each of the interviews. By using the dialogue from the interviews as the narration, the audience become more easily convinced by the arguments made as the information is directly coming from the expert. The dialogue from interviews also will have an element of emotion behind them, which is not the case with ‘voice-of-God’ narration; as the ‘voice-of-God’ is more authoritative, and less personal. The narration from interviews was accompanied with 911 calls made to emergency services at the time of Dawn Brancheau’s attack, and various video footage filmed by the trainers at Seaworld to assist in reinforcing their arguments. The interview dialogue further encourages the audience to side with the interviewees perspective of the events shown in both Blackfish and The Cove. Similarly to BlackFish, The Cove also features narration via dialogue from interviews, in place of ‘voice-of-God’ narration. The only narration featured in The Cove is interview dialogue from the activists themselves, and the narration is accompanied by images, news segments and footage filmed by the activists to strengthen the argument against marine animal slaughter and captivity, this is a feature also seen in Blackfish. In both