{"id":67205,"date":"2013-10-24T07:23:48","date_gmt":"2013-10-24T07:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/0de2709a84.nxcli.net\/0-kjasnb\/2013\/10\/24\/gabriela-cowperthwaite-talks-blackfish\/"},"modified":"2018-12-18T08:51:22","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T08:51:22","slug":"gabriela-cowperthwaite-talks-blackfish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/gabriela-cowperthwaite-talks-blackfish\/","title":{"rendered":"Gabriela Cowperthwaite Talks ‘Blackfish’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gabriela Cowperthwaite Talks ‘Blackfish’<\/strong>By Max Evry<\/p>\n

October 24, 2013<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sundance documentary sensation “Blackfish<\/strong>” has been getting a limited release in theaters, but today it will be broadcast on CNN so those interested can get in on the controversial subject matter.<\/p>\n

The subject is a killer whale in captivity named Tilikum<\/strong> who has killed three people (two trainers and a civilian) yet is still being showcased at SeaWorld and used for breeding. On February 24, 2010 Tilikum brutally killed his trainer Dawn Brancheau<\/strong> when a routine feeding went awry, and this was the inciting incident that drew filmmaker Gabriela Cowperthwaite to make “Blackfish<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

We sat down with Cowperthwaite in New York for an exclusive talk where we discussed getting inside Tilikum’s head, SeaWorld’s sense of corporate responsibility, and why keeping whales in captivity is a recipe for disaster.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Years ago Chris Rock did a joke about the tiger that mauled Siegfried & Roy: “That tiger didn’t go crazy, that tiger went tiger!” That’s your movie in a nutshell isn’t it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

GABRIELA COWPERTHWAITE:<\/strong> That’s interesting. You know, I don’t know about that because the movie ends up tracking Tilikum’s life from his capture right up until that tragic event. It’s really almost like we’re creating that day. Killer whales don’t kill us in the wild, tigers do. In a way it’s like we created something else. Yes it’s an apex predator, and it’s absolutely capable of doing those things, but this isn’t something that happens in the wild.<\/p>\n

Your impetus for making the film came when your heard the nasty “pulled in by her ponytail” story that SeaWorld gave. At what point does corporate spin become insulting not just to the victims but to the general public’s intelligence?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong>COWPERTHWAITE:<\/strong> I don’t know. I picked up on it which is why I jumped in to making the movie. I thought, “Wait a second\u2026 this was during a show? There’s video of it? Why did they first say she slipped and fell, and then why did they come up with the ponytail theory soon after?” But I don’t know if that resonated with the general public, I just don’t know. I didn’t hear people say, “Oh they keep switching their story!” I think that was one of the things that needed to be spelled out in the film, because sometimes we hear things but we’re so bombarded by media anyway. They’re so good with their PR spin that we’re getting information from them without even being aware of it.<\/p>\n

This isn’t necessarily a story that’s going to be vital to a large portion of the population, but if you stop to think about the ponytail line for just 5-seconds it’s just as ridiculous the Twinkie defense or something.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong>COWPERTHWAITE: <\/strong>Yeah, that’s exactly right. I guess it was this tragic event that was playing out over the media as a sensational story. There was an emotional aspect to it, and some outlets were more thoughtful about how they spoke about it, but nobody was going deep into the mind of Tilikum. Who has time for that deep learning about a single subject when there’s a million other things going on in the world? When I started tackling it people were like, “Yeah, I remember that story.” They weren’t like, “What else is there to be unearthed?” It’s like, “Yeah, she was killed. Killer whales probably kill. Why wouldn’t that happen?” That’s the whole of the documentary is to look deeper.<\/p>\n

Structurally there’s a lot of buildup towards the death of Dawn Brancheau, but when you reach that point in the film there’s no scary music, there’s no sensationalism, and you actually portray it in a way that we have sympathy for Tilikum. How important was it to show that he was just as much a victim as Dawn was?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong>COWPERTHWAITE: <\/strong>I think when you lay out the facts, which is what I tried very hard to do, it’s hard to come to any other conclusion. At the end of it I didn’t think to myself, “Oh, I hope people see that Tilikum was driven to this.” I felt like when you look at how this whole thing plays out, from the moment he’s captured to that day, you can’t come out with any other conclusion. It wasn’t a lot of work I had to do to convince people of that.<\/p>\n

You make a connection to how many offspring Tilikum has. Is that your way of saying that Seaworld might literally be breeding multiple generations of Charles Manson whales?<\/strong><\/p>\n

COWPERTHWAITE: <\/strong>(laughs) What’s interesting is that it’s captivity that causes this, it’s environmental and not his DNA, but the fact is that maybe it’s 60\/40\u2026 maybe it’s 80\/20. Maybe any animal in Tilikum’s situation would be driven crazy but not necessarily make the decision to kill the trainer that Tilikum did. Rather they might have made a decision to punish the trainer, like what happens to Ken Peters. That little genetic part that leads Tilikum to do this could be something, there could be something there that’s transferable to his progeny. In fact there’s one shot of this whale named Kai who’s just slamming this guy in the San Diego tank over and over again. Kai’s Tilikum’s son. So you wonder. All these animals are capable of huge aggression, but there’s not one documented case of a single human being killed by a killer whale in the wild. The fact that you don’t know makes it incredibly irresponsible for a breeding program to continue breeding an animal that has killed two people.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In your mind what would have been SeaWorld’s ideal way to have dealt with this tragedy as opposed to the way they handled it, i.e. blaming Dawn, putting Tilikum back in the show, etc?<\/strong><\/p>\n

COWPERTHWAITE:<\/strong> That’s a great question. It’s very multilayered. I think if they told the truth now they would eventually have to tell the whole truth. Since the premise of the whole film is that killer whales are not suited for captivity, in addressing that death the way I thought it should have been addressed they would have to admit that this 40-year experiment has been a failure. I think it has, I think it has not worked for the betterment of the animals and clearly has not worked for the people. They would have had to have revamped their business model entirely. It’s a great question! For them to admit that, you know?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And maybe to not put Tilikum out on display anymore\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

COWPERTHWAITE:<\/strong> Just Tilikum? Sure. We made a mistake, and we’ve made many mistakes, and we’re starting to see that this whole marine park thing is not really sustainable, it’s not working. The whales are dying early, they’re very sick, they fight with each other constantly and they’re killing people. Let’s take our massive amount of money we’ve made, our $2-billion dollars a year, and start working towards sea sanctuaries. That would be my ideal SeaWorld spokesperson comment.<\/p>\n

The producers of “Finding Dory” approached you after they saw the film and changed the storyline for their “Finding Nemo” sequel. What were some of their concerns in regards to how they should portray a sea park?<\/strong><\/p>\n

COWPERTHWAITE:<\/strong> We showed them “Blackfish” up at Pixar and I think they were in the throes of “Finding Dory” at that time. I don’t know what the script said, nobody really knows, it’s very top secret in a place like that, but they found the movie very compelling. They were touched by it and felt that they needed to do a lot more homework. Whether that informs their script\u2026 I do know they said “We’re gonna have to change some things because this is a place that wants to be on the right side of history.” People call clownfish Nemos, they last forever, so they’re not going to make mistakes.<\/p>\n

“Blackfish” will be broadcast on CNN Thursday October 24 and will be available on video November 12. <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n
\n

Share<\/a>