• Title: Blackfish
• Year: 2013
• Duration: 1h 23m
• Rating: 8,1
• Genres: Documentary, Biography, News

Summary Blackfish (2013)

A documentary following the controversial captivity of killer whales, and its dangers for both humans and whales.

Notorious killer whale Tilikum is responsible for the deaths of three individuals, including a top killer whale trainer. Blackfish shows the sometimes devastating consequences of keeping such intelligent and sentient creatures in captivity.

BLACKFISH tells the story of Tilikum, a notoriously aggressive orca that killed three people while in captivity. Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite uses shocking footage and emotional interviews to present a convincing case against keeping these wild animals for human entertainment.

"Blackfish," is a documentary film about the multiple incidents, including the three deaths, that prompted the ongoing court case between Sea World, and OSHA, the "Occupational Safety and Health Admissions". These 3 deaths, which included 2 Orca trainers, were caused by Sea World's infamous bull Orca "Tilikum." Through a series of interviews with former Orca trainers that worked with, or around Tilikum, and other problematic captive Orca, the film tries to find an explanation for what happened.

This documentary explores how long-held misconceptions and harmful living conditions may be causing orca whales to lash out violently toward their trainers. Several cases of death and mutilation are researched, leading to some uncomfortable questions about how we choose to keep and display these large and very intelligent animals.

The February 24, 2010 death of SeaWorld Orlando orca trainer Dawn Brancheau by the facility's male orca Tilikum serves as a jumping off point in the discussion not only of putting captive orcas at such facilities on show akin to circus animals, but whether cetaceans, especially orcas, should be held in captivity at all. Trainers at facilities like SeaWorld are much like dog trainers in knowing how to train behavior but do not have the scientific knowledge of the animals themselves. Many former SeaWorld trainers interviewed state that seeing orcas up close and personal at such facilities led them into wanting this job as their career. As more and more knowledge is gained about the general nature of orcas - virtually nothing known at the time orcas were captured for captivity to perform in such shows beginning in the 1970s - the more that the evidence points to the practice being inhumane and can potentially lead to such incidents that happened between Tilikum and Brancheau. While this evidence points to such captivity leading to possible psychosis in the orcas, especially the males of the largely matriarchal species who are often beaten by the females, any of the trainer/orca incidents, including Brancheau's death - she the third such trainer killed by a facility orca worldwide - have been spun by the facility in question as human error in their continuation to live on their bread and butter of these orca shows and breeding orcas to keep in captivity to continue the cycle.

Synopsis Blackfish (2013)