Good morning/afternoon fellow colleagues. Picture a documentary that you have just seen, what did you feel ? Sad? Informed? These reaction are may be possibly evoking a response from you. Documentaries are influential pieces of film. An effective documentary can have powerful impacts on the audience. It can change one’s perspective or even makes a difference in an individual. After all, doesn’t change come from the power of an individual?
Imagine you see a bullying in action and you told a teacher, yet the teacher doesn’t response to this. How would you feel?
This is the case for the dolphins of Taijin, a small coastal village in Japan. The documentary, The Cove, is a good example. It analyses the controversial hunting and capturing practices of dolphins in the small village. This is an emotional film that has won over 25 awards and some of them noteworthy, such as “Best Documentary from the Environmental Media. It is an example of Cinema Verite, it combines the elements of observation and interviews to invite and position the audience on the perspective and exposes the
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To establish the authenticity of the film, he employs several word famous ocean and marine activist including Ric O’ Barry, an activisit who have been working with dolphins over 50 years. When O’Barry was introduced, Psihoyos shows pictures of him taking part of the activist community, making it clear the O’Barry is a major activist. Furthermore, Psihoyos shows clips of O’Barry’s past life which describes how he trained the dolphins for the TV show, Flipper. O’Barry, then explains when one of the dolphins of TV show, Kathy, committed suicide, he experienced a deep change of heart. This strong emotional sentiment creates an invited reading to the audiences and forms mutual trust with
...lly has a critic. To strengthen the arguments and persuade viewers to their side of the debate, film makers tend to present only one side of the story. Specific placement of an object, the choice of words and the selection of scenes are possible elements that could be woven into documentaries to shape viewers’ perspectives on certain issues. Fat Head is a great case in point, which is likely to convert some public opinion about the ideology of healthy eating. Documentaries may contain biases that mislead the viewers; presenting ‘facts’ but perhaps not revealing the entire picture. Therefore, in a sense, documentaries can be truthful, but also fallacious. It is imperative to evaluate the techniques used in documentaries, in order to distinguish readily from what is fantasy. It could be concluded that Fat Head and Super Size Me are two version of the same reality.
David Kirby’s book describes the complex issues of whales in captivity. The death of a SeaWorld trainer brought up many objective reasons of the training practices of this business were not effective at keeping trainers safe in the water. Currently this debate is still being tested in a court of law. OSHA claims that even with the precautions that SeaWorld tries to use, it still cannot guarantee the safety of trainers in the water. This cultural topic has been gaining ground, and recently prompted a movie based off this book titled, Blackfish. The audience of this book includes animal activists, followers of David Kirby, and people that are interested in the topic of killer whales in captivity. Rob Grom was contracted to create a book jacket that would visually depict the context of the David Kirby’s book. The photographer uses his work to persuade people to look into the claims of the book and see another side of the animal park. Grom’s Photograph image uses the picture, the words of the title, and the subtitle to create a twist of the logos, and uses David Kirby’s ethos to create an appeal to the book.
In 2013, Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s documentary, ‘Blackfish’ was presented at the Sundance Film Festival. The film featured a SeaWorld killer whale, Tilikium, and his involvement in three deaths that were claimed to be “accidents.” Former SeaWorld trainers were interviewed in the film and shared their recollection of events and how little was told to them by the parks. The film received most of its attention when the CNN network introduced the documentary. SeaWorld responded to the film by stating that the film was “inaccurate and misleading.”
Yet these people do not stop to consider what is going on behind the scenes when they are watching the dolphins and whales swim and dive through the water with their trainers. If one were to approach a trainer and ask about the abuse that these animals suffer every day in order for them to perform their shows and tricks, the trainer would say that it is an educational and necessary aspect to keep the animals in captivity. They would also defend these abusive acts by speaking of the information they are gaining of the animals and how they can use this information to help those in the wild. This is due to their own ignorance that they would say such terrible things about these intelligent yet helpless animals. These animals endure much more torture in captivity than most people would like to admit to themselves. Furthermore, the “facts” that the trainers tell the visitors of SeaWorld are untrue. For example, as one sees in the movie Blackfish, the trainers do not give accurate facts regarding life span in and out of captivity as well as the percentage of the collapsed fins
In this film, previous employees of the theme parks were contacted and asked to speak about their experiences with the whales. These were not the typical “sell lemonade to you during the show” workers. These were the people who trained day in and day out with the animals and performed
As a viewer, the documentary’s intention to inform is more completely fulfilled by research conducted beyond the scope of the camera lens. Had I never written this paper, for instance, the reason for all the violence embedded within the subject matter would remain as enigmatic as the documentary itself.
As you can tell dolphins in general are very interesting creatures. There are many different ways you can learn about them. As I mentioned in my essay dolphins are fighting pollution and many other issues, and there are ways you can fix them! So help save our oceans there are many beautiful creatures living in the water!
Is a dolphin a person? Most people would automatically dismiss the question, but in reality, this question can be discussed on a very complex level revealing that the definition of a person is not so black and white. Mary Midgley sets the stage to her narrative by telling the story of a specific court case that she uses as a reference on many occasions. In May of 1977, two men set free two dolphins who were used by the University of Hawaii’s Institute of Marine Biology for experimentation. Kenneth Le Vasseur, one of the men who was standing trial, told how these dolphins were suffering through unfair conditions such as diminishing food rations, isolation from other dolphins, and loss of toys. Based on this information, Le Vasseur and his counsel tried to use the “choice of evils defense” which states that an act, which would typically be considered unacceptable, would be allowed if it would lead to an avoidance of a greater evil or crime against “another”. This defense was rejected on the grounds that the judge declared that a dolphin was not considered to be “another” and instead it should be considered property. Today in our society, it is a common perception that a person or “another” indicates that you must be a human being. Midgley investigates this perception as well as the question of how do we classify what is and what is not a person as well as the moral implications that comes with the title.
The latest animal rights issue to hit the public is a whale of a controversy. For decades, the public has enjoyed visiting SeaWorld and taking in mesmerizing displays of aquatic performance by orcas, the largest species of dolphins, and their trainers. Recent events have stirred up a media uproar over the safety of these creatures and their trainers. Much of what the public knows about the maltreatment of these creatures comes from a documentary released in 2013 called “Blackfish”. The breeding and captivity of killer whales for entertainment purposes poses a threat not only to the whales, but also the trainers who interact with them.
Throughout the US, millions of POC students exposed to the traditional, rather outdated version of US History. Never do the textbooks explicitly mention and/ or explain the terrorizing, constant stripping down of others’ cultures and appropriating it into the dominant group of predominantly white, Anglo-Saxon and protestant. For many Mexican American students, they can’t relate to anything in the text, nor do they share an interest in the coursework provided. The way US history sets up doesn't teach and somehow excludes Indigenous backgrounds or for the most part was never taught in the classroom but, rather briefly mentioned in one or two paragraphs. Immigrants from diverse groups built this country yet their culture is consistently shown
In today’s world we tend to be caught up in our own personal bubbles. We don’t realize what goes on outside of our world and the myriad of subcultures that exist. The main problem with this is, once we become aware of the people that live outside of our culture and our norms, we tend to not understand their lifestyle and think that they are abnormal or psychotic. Through the various documentaries that we have explored this semester, I have experienced a change in emotion and thought. Every documentary we watched did not make sense to me. However, I realized that once you really dig deep and try to understand these people and their motives, you can uncover the way they affect our society.
In the United States alone, there are more than 500 dolphins and members of the dolphin family held in captivity; equally thousands have died in captivity. Today, dolphins are kept captive in amusement parks, "Swim With Dolphins" programs, casinos and sometimes even shopping malls. Many people enjoy watching them perform in shows or even interacting with them in aquatic parks, but most people lack the understanding of the trauma dolphins suffer in through being captured and transported, and the often cruel conditions in which they are kept. The process of capture and the conditions in which dolphins are kept are cruel and unnatural, and can be stopped by educating the public about the significant cost of this industry to the health and life of the dolphin species, and convincing the public to not buy tickets to the different events that captive dolphins are involved in.
Whales are some of the ocean’s most fascinating amphibious beings. They possess highly acquired communication skills and are believed to have an intelligence level equal to, and in some species, surpass that of the human brain. The biological, anthropological, and marine educational communities have studied the whale in a way that sheds light onto the studies of evolution as well. Yet, there are industries that subject these animals to captivity, hindering the natural development of these animals. Of all the communities contributing to the protection and study of the whale, there is one tipping the scale towards exploiting it for profit: The entertainment industry.
It is often debated on whether or not marine mammals should be in held in captivity. Some say the captivity of these animals is great for educating the public while others say it is destroying the physical and mental health of these creatures. Kelly A. Waples and Nicholas J. Gales have put together an academic journal discussing the health effects captivity has on dolphins. Waples is a member of the Marine Mammal Research Group and attended the Graduate School of the Environment Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. Dr. Gales is the Chief Scientist for the Australian Antarctic Division. Together they give a large amount of information on the studies done on the negative effects captivity has on dolphins in their journal called Evaluating and Minimising Social Stress in the Care of Captive Bottlenose Dolphins. J. E. Heyning and C. A. Heyning have been studying the anatomy of whales and porpoises for many years now. They currently work at the Natural Museum of Los Angeles and in 1997 they came across a stranded gray calf whale of the coast of California. In Rescue of an Orphaned Gray Whale Calf they explain how they teamed up with the L.A. lifeguards, the police, and SeaWorld to help rescue the calf. It shows how SeaWorld can help marine mammals when they are in distress and need care. The Oceanic Preservation Society (OPS) is an organization founded in 2005 that is dedicated to inspire people to save the ocean. OPS is most famous for the film, The Cove, which won dozens of awards around the world including an Oscar for Best Documentary in 2009. OPS has put together an article about Sea World and the animals held in captivity called Marine Mammal Captivity: The Truth...
Dolphins are amazing animals. Society needs to become more aware of the risks that dolphins face each and every day so my kids, and my kids’ kids can experience dolphins in nature like I have had the chance to.