Keswick Film Festival

Synopsis

It's a story about hubris and it begins in 2010 with a violent death at the SeaWorld aquatic park in Orlando, Florida. Dawn Brancheau, one of the park's most experienced trainers, was dragged into the water, mauled and killed by Tilikum, a 5000-kilogram orca whale she had been working with for years.

A lawsuit, brought by the United States' Occupational Safety and Health Administration, followed and private video footage recorded by the hidden cameras that SeaWorld had installed in its grounds and pools was made public. It is this footage that gives Gabriela Cowperthwaite's documentary such a charge.

There's no denying Blackfish is a powerful documentary. Focusing on the mistreatment of orcas by SeaWorld and other such marine mammal parks for human entertainment, the captivity of these animals is something that needs to continually be addressed as it has been for several years.

Thanks to Dogwoof