'Blackfish' Documentary- Depicts Life Of Whales Leading Up To Seaworld Attacks [TRAILER]
A new documentary questions the process of capturing killer whales in order to place them in theme parks for tourist entertainment.
The film, Blackfish, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, and speculates the history of whales taken out of the ocean for entertainment purposes, according to Mail Online. It focuses on a 12,000lb orca name Tilikum who dragged its trainer to her death in front of tourists at Seaworld in 2010 in Orlando, Florida, advocating the idea that animals should be left in the wild. Since the festival, the film has been set for a nationwide release July 26.
In interviews that promoted the film, Blackfish director Gabriela Cowperthwaite said that something had seemed out of place when she took her sons to Seaworld in San Diego.
“Shamu Stadium always seemed kind of garish and unsettling, but I went with the flow," she told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. "I would see hundreds of people laughing and smiling and I'd think, 'Could something that makes everyone this happy be that bad?"'
But when trainer Dawn Brancheau was killed by Tilikum on February 24, 2010, she knew something had to be done.
Brancheau, 40, died after she was grabbed by the orca and dragged under water, where she was held until she drowned.
The documentary focuses on Tilikum’s life, showing how he was forcible separated from his family after being captured, bullied by other whales as a calf, and was kept in a small dark tank for up to 14 hours at a time.
The film claims these conditions left the whale deeply traumatized and, as a result, turned it into a killer of humans.
