Explored in everything from this year’s excellent Leviathan to Jaws, the sea can be a terrifying place, but perhaps more harrowing is when humans get involved with the path of nature. A new documentary, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival this year, explores such an issue, particularly the life of killer whales.
Tracking the SeaWorld orca Tilikum that killed three people, including the 2010 incident in which trainer Dawn Brancheau died, Blackfish follows these events, as well as the practice for bringing in these whales. Painting a traumatic picture of abuse and eventual psychosis on the part of these animals, it looks like one of the year’s most essential documentaries. Check out the trailer and poster below for Gabriela Cowperthwaite‘s film.
Synopsis:
Shocking, never before seen footage and riveting interviews with trainers and experts manifest the orca’s extraordinary nature, the species’ cruel treatment in captivity over the last four decades, and the growing disillusionment of workers who were misled and endangered by the highly profitable sea-park industry. This emotionally wrenching, tautly structured story challenges us to consider our relationship to nature and reveals how little we humans have learned from these highly intelligent and enormously sentient fellow mammals.
Blackfish opens on July 19th.