Film Festival 09 - The Cove
The Cove
USA 2009, 94m
Director: Louie Psihoyos
Festivals: Sundance 2009
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 they penetrate 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 series had in popularising peforming 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. - Bill
Gosden
www.thecovemovie.com
