Blackfish is a 2013 documentary directed and written by Gabriela Cowperthwaite. The film regards the effects that captivity has on killer whales, with a focus on a SeaWorld orca named Tilikum. Born in 1981, Tilikum was captured at the age of two off the coast of Iceland and taken to Sealand of the Pacific in British Columbia, Canada. 8 years later, Keltie Byrnes, a marine biology student and part time Sealand trainer, slipped into the pool containing Tilikum and two female whales. The three orcas submerged and dragged Byrnes around the pool, resulting in her death. Shortly thereafter, Tilikum was moved to SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida, where he killed two more people. Charles P. Dukes was found dead, draped over Tilikum’s back, in 1999 after evading security and entering the orca tank. Dawn Brancheau, a veteran trainer, was killed during a post-show routine when Tilikum pulled her into the …show more content…
A large part of this has to do with the way the director appeals to ethos. The documentary was funded by CNN, a company that many audiences knows and trusts due to the reliability in being a top news network. Cowperthwaite uses actual news footage by NBC and FOX, plus CNN debates, from the coverage of the different whale attacks. She also creates credibility through the interviews with the four former SeaWorld trainers that worked with Dawn Brancheau. Their background and first-hand experience establishes a trust with the audience that makes them believable when they speak out against SeaWorld. Another extremely trustworthy source that appears in the documentary is OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Those who work in this administration aim to help employers and employees reduce job injuries, illnesses and deaths. The organization sued SeaWorld after the death of Dawn Brancheau and have fought many other lawsuits because of the way the Sea World treats their
Blackfish is a well-known film about how whales were kept in captivity while being mistreated. This film explained the situation in more of a sequential order stating each event one after another from occurrence. This film was made to inform people of all the cruel and monstrous things that Sea Land and Sea World were doing to the whales.
The director includes footage of Tilikum and Dawn having a good time and performing together to show that Tilikum didn’t have any animosity towards her. Thomas Tobin explains the attack and mentions that Dawn was scalped and that her arm was missing. The director incorporates actual footage from the attack with eye witness testimonies to give the audience a sense of what actually happened. Although Tilikum was responsible for the death of trainer Dawn Brancheau, another whale at the Canadian park, Sealand of the Pacific was responsible for the tragic death of trainer and competitive swimmer, Keltie Byrne. Keltie Byrne was performing with the whales as she normally did when she suddenly slipped into the pool, as she was trying to pull herself out of the pool, the whale zoomed towards her and grabbed her by her boot. She proceeded to plead for help every chance she was brought back to the surface, but no one could help in time. These two incidents serve as examples that whales shouldn’t be taken out of their natural habitat because it’s unsafe for their mental health and it’s unsafe for the physical health of the
The documentary Blackfish directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, leaves the viewer with many different emotions. This documentary follows the life of Tilikum, a captured killer whale who is forced to preform for SeaLand. The director uses different interviews from people who have worked with Tilikum or have seen him attack people during the shows. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, has said that swimming with and training killer whales is not safe at all and should not be done. They believe it is a very high risk to the human working with the whale.
The documentary follows an Orca by the name of Tilikum. Tilikum had been involved in three deaths, including a Marine Biologist named Dawn Brancheau, who was killed by Tilikum while performing with him. The film also highlights why keeping whales in captivity is dangerous and also touches on the death of Dawn Brancheau who was faulted for her own death due to her ponytail hanging low.
The trainers, along with Cowperthwaite, believe having them in a captivity like SeaWorld is inhumane. I agree with this documentary, Blackfish. This documentary gave a perfect visual representation of why I do not like having animals in a cage or in a small area. Having animals captive, working hard, and hardly fed is wrong, especially when only allowing them in a small area to roam. Watching this documentary made me feel sympathy towards these poor animals that must go through this harsh life style.
And even a six year old wasn’t blind to that fact. The issue of keeping Orcas in captivity and under the care of man has been a controversial practice ever since the first dolphins and whales were taken into aquariums for the amusement of humans. In more recent times, the documentary Blackfish (which has been recently broadcast on popular TV stations such as CNN) that focuses on Tilikum, an orca held by SeaWorld, has brought to light the controversy over captive killer whales. Orcas are majestic, beautiful, and intelligent creatures that should not be kept in captivity for our entertainment because of the harm they cause. SeaWorld, a leader in the captivity and use of killer whales for entertainment, has counterattacked the points made by the documentary Blackfish, which brought many points to light.
On January 19, 2013, an independent film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. This film was titled ‘Blackfish’. The film’s director, Gabriela Cowperthwaite, chose to investigate SeaWorld after the death of killer whale trainer Dawn Brancheau in 2010. ‘Blackfish’ depicts that life at SeaWorld is harmful for killer whales and that the company has attempted to cover up the facts surrounding the death of Dawn Brancheau, as well the history of Tilikum, the killer whale involved in that accident. The ‘Blackfish’ production team employed former SeaWorld employees to recount their experience with the company and the whales themselves. Yet, there are quite a few things that the film failed to mention: the actual facts from Dawn’s death, the date
To demonstrate this point, Stayer discussed the show about sharks. And saying that there is a huge misconception in America and sharks do not attack humans. In other words, Sea World says that sharks are friends not fiends, and that the fishermen are the true evildoers. Indeed this very characteristic view of a person who anthropomorphize an animal. Because there is so much objective evidence to support the notion that sharks like any living thing will eat almost anything digestible in order to survive and that includes humans leads any coherent person to realize that Sea World is unserviceable information to make a
Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, the documentary Blackfish explores the corporate greed behind orca attractions, and how this greed leads to inhumane treatment of orcas and safety hazards for their trainers. The film opens with a 911 call to report the death of Dawn Brancheau, a senior orca trainer at SeaWorld Orlando, by Tillikum, a male whale. After a set of interviews from former SeaWorld employees, the audience learns about the history of Tillikum the whale. He is inhumanely captured off the coast of Iceland in the early 1980s, and brought to a park called Sealand in Victoria, Canada to entertain guests. He is kept in a small metal box, barely big enough to fit him inside, for majority of his life. Former employees of Sealand described
At first, the film is happy and the trainers talk about how much they loved working at SeaWorld and working with the animals. As the film goes on, you get to see the tragedies and heartbreak that goes on at these parks. The film talks a lot about the living conditions of the whales. Tilikum gets beat up by the female whales, which does not necessarily happen in the wild. The whales are used to swimming around one hundred miles a day, but in captivity, they are confined to a little swimming pool where they barely have any room to even breathe.
... Vivian. "SeaWorld Claims Ethics Breaches by OSHA Investigator." CNN. Turner Broadcasting System, n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2014. .
“Blackfish” has had people thinking about the tragic events happening at SeaWorld and the reasons behind it. SeaWorld tried to cover up the deaths of trainers but, there are always people that find out the truth. The trainers who
Three of the killings were done by one famous whale at SeaWorld, named Tilikum.
Blackfish points fingers very well and happens to be a very good motivator because of the emotions it draws upon. In a similar fashion to how an interrogator might draw upon the most basic of human instincts; fear, specifically the commonly held fear of death in order get the information he needs out of you. It’s in this fashion that Blackfish claws at our squishy sides in order to make us believe the information they provide as truth. However good they are at clouding the vision of the masses with convincing footage and audio overlay does not justify their lies. “The Opening Sequence is false and misleading. It consists of separate pieces of innocuous training and show footage taken by SeaWorld’s underwater cameras cobbled together (under actual 911 calls regarding Dawn Brancheau) to mislead the audience into believing it is viewing footage of the fatal incident between Ms. Brancheau and Tilikum on February 24, 2010. However, the Opening Sequence does not contain footage of an attack, and neither Ms. Brancheau nor Tilikum are depicted in the Opening Sequence.”-((:01-- 1:13) BF analysis.)
The whole documentary tackled consequences which also have consequences. This in turn somehow forms a chain reaction of consequences which are also interrelated. As a result of these, climate change is considered as an accelerant to instability and a catalyst for conflict.