If you know of a story or charity we should feature please get in touch - Lifescape is here to make a difference
“The Cove,” a thriller-cum-documentary that unmasked the secret annual killing of hundreds of dolphins in a small Japanese fishing village, took home the Oscar for Best Documentary during the 82nd annual ceremony in Los Angeles
The film has already won numerous awards at film festivals, incuding the Golden Space Needle award for best documentary at the Seattle International Film Festival last year and has been screened in fifteen different countries
The Oscar telecast is the most-watched TV show in Japan! And they, and more than a billion other viewers, saw The Cove movie win!
The acceptance speech was one of the more memorable moments of the Academy Award broadcast when Ric O’Barry, the subject of the documentary, attempted to unfurl a small banner on stage before television producers abruptly cut away to show audience members.
The sign urged people to send a texted phone message DOLPHIN to 44144 to register support for the campaign – according to TakePart.com this will sign you up to receive information about the fight to end the slaughter in Taiji
Speaking after collecting his Oscar, Director Louie Psihoyos said the recent death of Dawn Brancheau, trainer at SeaWorld in Florida, proved whales and dolphins should not be held in captivity and that this supported claims made in his film that cetaceans should not be used in amusement parks
“There’s never been a wild dolphin or a whale in the history of man known to have killed a human being in the wild,” Psihoyos said.
“And you have one killer whale here killing three human beings in one lifetime. This teaches us that these animals don’t belong in captivity
“If you take a captive animal out of the wild and you force him to do stupid tricks for our amusement, it says more about our intelligence than it does theirs.”
ABOUT THE FILM
The Cove takes place in Taiji, Japan, where a dolphin can earn a fisherman up to $150,000 if sold to a dolphinarium or, at the very least, $600 for its mercury-filled meat. While the town masquerades as a dolphin-watching hot spot for tourists, it’s actually one of the largest dolphin-massacring sites in the world, done in secret in a hidden cove
Hidden cameras and microphones were used by Louie Psihoyos, one of the world’s most prominent still photographers, to highlight the work of hero Ric O’Barry, who once upon a time trained five dolphins to play the title role in the 1960s sitcom Flipper and consequently incited a worldwide obsession with trained dolphins
“I spent 10 years of my life building up the dolphins-in-captivity industry,” says a teary O’Barry famously in the film, “And I spent the last 35 years trying to tear it down.”
O’Barry teams up with the Ocean Preservation Society to bring to light what is actually going on in the cove with the help of underwater sound and camera technicians and expert free divers. The result is a gripping film that Stevens describes as “eco-Ocean’s 11.”
O’Barry recently appeared on various TV shows urging the end to commercial displays of marine mammals following the recent killing of trainer Dawn
The best documentary Academy Award will no doubt provide a boost for the Japanese distribution deal finally announced last week, although it is also sure to fire up the already heated topic of the film about dolphin hunting in the country where it was secretly shot
Medallion Media acquired the documentary, despite concerns about local opposition, particularly from the fishermen and townsfolk of Taiji in western Japan where The Cove is set
“We’ve put up with a lot of pressure against showing it — but also there’s also been a lot of support,” said someone close to the deal at Medallion Media, “We’re still talking to the representatives of Taiji about it.”
“We’ve teamed up with Unplugged to market and distribute the film, as it has more experience than we do in those areas,” the person said. “As a Japanese person, I think it is important that the film gets seen.”
The documentary was shown at the Toyko International Film Festival last year, but a university in Tokyo was reported to have abandoned a planned screening of the movie there this month after objections from Taiji
Takeshi ato of the distribution company ‘Unplugged’ said last Thursday that he has arranged to show The Cove in five cinemas in major Japanese cities in May or June and hopes to expand the number of theatres to about 20
“When the film is seen in Japan, it will shut ‘the cove’ down permanently,” O’Barry said in a recent interview
