film
Vegucated Documentary Film Review
Going vegetarian or vegan can be quite a commitment, so how do you decide and more importantly, how do you maintain your momentum during the shaky transition period?
Vegucated explores the world of beginner veganism from the perspective of 3 different individuals from New York, all with different reasons. While the producer herself is along for the journey and provides much of the up front educational and overview commentary, she is absent for much of the meat (pardon the pun) of the movie.
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The Pipe Documentary Film Review
The Pipe is your classic David vs Goliath story, except that it’s not. It follows a small Rossport community fighting against an invasion by Shell Oil and the Irish State. Gas found off the remote coastal village prompted a clash between farmers, fisherman and huge numbers of private security and police.
Behind the scenes, you experience the tragic division of community, neighbors and friends when things turn dire. 5 locals decide to spend 94 days in jail when faced with an ‘eminent domain’ situation, protesting the pipeline’s path across their farming fields and land.
All seems lost for this town of age-old way community residents, with trades and a way of life passed down for generations. Beat in the courts, on their land and with seemingly no recourse for the destruction of their livelihood, desperation is apparent and a true theme of the film. › Continue reading
For the Dolphins – The Cove Movie Review
I was fortunate to catch a screener of The Cove at a local arts movie theater in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle just a few days after its release. My overall feeling for the film was a bit melancholy as they tend to be with all activist documentaries attempting to highlight the plight of a species, but the content and footage is undeniably impactful and well done. Similar to the shark finning documentary Sharkwater is to sharks, this dolphin exploitation and slaughter movie can be very eye opening and heartbreaking.
The movie is well constructed with a balance of fairly intense and exciting cloak-and-dagger edge-of-your-seat excitement in the real-time plot, with the somewhat drier, but very informative interviews and research segments inherent in documentaries. The heart of the film lies Richard O’Barry, who could be to blame for much of what goes on in the movie, much like Peter Benchley, the creator of ‘Jaws’ was for sharks. O’Barry was the dolphin trainer for the Flipper TV series and throughout the 60′s, promoted dolphins as entertainers. It was through his work with dolphins that he became their largest proponent and activist.
Earning a 94% and a 7.9/10 on rottentomatoes and an 8.6/10 on IMDB (as of today), I am not the only one who sees the importance of this film.
- Director: Louie Psihoyos
- Writer: Mark Monroe
- Release Date: July 31, 2009
- Genre: Documentary
- Runtime: 92 min
- Country: USA
- Language: English
- Rating: PG-13
- Cast: Joe Chisholm, Mandy-Rae Cruikshank, Charles Hambleton, Simon Hutchins, Kirk Krack, Isabel Lucas, Richard O’Barry, Hayden Panettiere, Roger Payne, John Potter, Louie Psihoyos, Dave Rastovich, Paul Watson
The documentary takes place primarily in the small fishing village of Taiji, Japan- home to ‘The Cove’. The cove is a naturally hidden bay where dolphins are herded and then slaughtered, out of public view (and there is great effort to see that it remains that way).
Filmed with camouflaged cameras, remote controlled helicopters, planted underwater cameras and microphones, the crew was constantly under pressure and scrutiny for their activities.
Now, if you plan on seeing it (which i highly recommend by the way) and do not want to know anything further, then stop reading now and go see it. Then, come back after you see it, read the rest and comment whether you agree or disagree with the rest of the article. Otherwise, read on!
Where I begin to take issue is that you cannot help but think ‘what makes dolphins so special?’ We slaughter pigs, cows, fish and many other species for food, why should we think of dolphins any different? The ‘face factor’, as many call it is the, is the preferential treatment we give to cute animals. The film addresses this point very well in fact and re-directs your attention to the practice that occurs before the slaughter- the process of selecting dolphins for dolphinariums and dolphin encounters.
