Hello readers, today I will be critiquing the documentary Blackfish. If you do not know what Blackfish is about, here is a brief summary: Blackfish is a documentary that was released in 2013 that shows the lives of Killer Whales (Orcas) who live in captivity by corporations like SeaWorld. The documentary captures the lives of these killer whales and how some have survived life in captivity. The film goes on to include how these killer whales got into the hands of these corporations, as well as news headlines that have shook the world. As we should all know by now, SeaWorld has held Killer whales in captivity for a very long time (since the mid 1960’s) there have been many news stories on incidents involving the killer whales and why they should be set free. In the documentary, former SeaWorld trainers, directors, and marine biologists who have worked closely with these animals, speak up about what really goes on in SeaWorld. As it turns out, SeaWorld has tried to hide multiple incidents regarding the Killer Whales. The documentary shows graphic video clips and images that capture these distressed animals and their aggressive actions toward trainers and each other. There have been a total of four fatalities due to killer whale attacks all associated with killer whales from SeaWorld. Tilikum, a male orca, was known as SeaWorld’s largest killer whale, as well as its main breeder. (figure-1)

Tilikum died in 2017 and was responsible for three out of the four deaths associated with SeaWorld’s trainers. Another killer whale that was responsible for the fourth death was Keto, a male killer whale that had been born in SeaWorld and was later loaned to a smaller marine life park called Loro Parque, located in Spain. Throughout the documentary, the former trainers expressed their feelings toward the animals and explained that they believe the animals only participated in such attacks due to the stress put upon them by SeaWorld. They blamed SeaWorld for mistreating the animals and not doing anything after all of the incidents. The public’s reaction after watching the documentary was so powerful that SeaWorld experienced a shortage of attendance, decided to end its breeding program, and in 2016 announced that they would end their killer whale shows (the last of the shows that have still not ended plan to do so later this year). However, SeaWorld will not release the killer whales back into the ocean because they would have little chance of survival. The majority of the killer whales that belong to seaWorld have lived in captivity their entire lives and SeaWorld believes they would not survive if released into the ocean, therefore, SeaWorld has planned to build ocean like habitats for these animals and have them put on display for people to see. Trainers will no longer be able to interact with the animals as they have done before. They will only feed and be there to medically treat the animals. The animals are said to be in the habitats until they have reached the end of their lives.

In my opinion this documentary has made the biggest impact on its viewers. There were no support links stated in the documentary whatsoever because there was no need for them. The documentary single handedly provided all the evidence against SeaWorld and corporations like it. Of course people and organizations like PETA have been raising awareness before the documentary, but in this case the documentary itself did not need to raise awareness because it had already been done by activists and other organizations. The documentary had every aspect possible in making people understand that the animals were not at fault. Joyful music was played while trainers spoke about these breathtaking animals, other trainers cried when asked to recollect their time at SeaWorld: the documentaries emotional aspect was incredible. Every person who was interviewed had formerly been associated with SeaWorld. There was one man that argued in SeaWorld’s defense, but I cannot recall if he formerly worked for SeaWorld or was employed by them at the time of the interview. Although the majority of interviewees argued against SeaWorld, I don’t believe the documentary showed biased opinions based on the fact that they did have a person defending SeaWorld and they had stated that SeaWorld wanted nothing to do with the documentary. After reading Alison Byrne Fields article The Downside of Measuring the Social Impact of Documentary Films, I do believe that this documentary should be measured on its impact because it did impact its viewers and it did strike SeaWorld to change. I recently watched a reality series documentary called Parts Unknown the episode I watched featured Puerto Rico and how the United States has basically left it to fend for itself. I was unaware of how bad the situation in Puerto Rico was and believe that the episode did bring awareness to the major issues there. Although, I did know that after hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico has continuously suffered and is still suffering. There can definitely be more awareness brought on the current state of Puerto Rico just like there is always news from other places circulating around the U.S.

References:

Blackfish (can be seen on Netflix,Amazon Prime, Youtube, itunes, Google play, and Vudu)

Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (can be seen on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Youtube, itunes, Google play, and Vudu)

Alison Byrne Fields Article The Downside of Measuring the Social Impact of Documentary Films (can be found at this link https://www.indiewire.com/2014/08/the-downside-of-measuring-the-social-impact-of-documentary-films-23582/ )

Figure-1 (https://www.businessinsider.com/tilikum-breeding-at-seaworld-2013-11)

Recommended:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SotCxN7Xuc (a short youtube video by PETA on the life of Orkid the Killer Whale)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXhi_TK5iRc (a youtube video showing Tilikum’s partners and offspring ex: family tree)