As gripping as a D-day assault movie, this spectacular activist film by National Geographic photographer Louie Psihoyos follows US conservation group Oceanic Preservation as it exposes Japan’s dolphin trade.
“Dolphins are the only wild animals known to rescue humans. With this film, we'd like to come to their rescue and, in the process, save ourselves.” — Louie Psihoyos, Japan Times
Screened as part of NZIFF 2009
The Cove 2008
As gripping as a D-day assault movie, this spectacular film from National Geographic photographer Louie Psihoyos surely spells the end of business for a business few of us even suspected existed: the capture of dolphins to populate the world's dolphinariums. The grotesque by-product of this already questionable trade is that surplus dolphins are slaughtered and passed off as whale meat in the supermarkets of Japan. The film follows US conservation group Oceanic Preservation Society – equipped and financed to the tune of $5 million by Netscape founder Jim Clark – as it penetrates the massive wall of security around the operation in order to capture the footage that should blow this operation out of the water. Former Flipper trainer Ric O'Barry, painfully aware of the role that TV series had in popularising performing dolphin shows, is an eloquent and moving exponent of dolphin rights and a clued-up commentator on the intransigence of the Japanese and the ineffectiveness of the International Whaling Commission. — BG