Visual Text Essay (KC022066.DOCX;1)

Hogan 6

Cole HoganMs. Amy PaceComposition II31 March 2014One Fish, Two Fish:An Analysis of the Acclaimed Documentary, Blackfish

The Orca, otherwise known as the Killer Whale, is the largest member of the dolphin family. The Orca has long been told about as a fantastical creature, the likes of which starring in films such as Free Willy and its successors. The Orca is also well-known for being the centerpiece attraction in the SeaWorld empire across its many parks in the United States and ones like it around the world, Loro Parque in Spain to name one. The Killer Whale is also the topic of discussion in the documentary film Blackfish which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 19, 2013, gaining national critical acclaim and boasting many celebrity endorsements, including the likes of Matt Damon, Martina McBride and Willie Nelson. Unfortunately, the film is heavily biased and preys on its audiences emotion while trying to portray a false reality in order to swing viewers to share the opinion of the director, Gabriela Cowperthwaite. Mrs. Cowperthwaite, a mother who had just taken her kids to SeaWorld, and of course as a documentary filmmaker, [Cowperthwaite] felt compelled to share the real, untold truths about the death of SeaWorld trainer, Dawn Brancheau.On November 9, 1983, an 11.5 foot long, two year old killer whale was captured off the East coast of Iceland for the Sealand of the Pacific marine attraction located near Victoria, British Columbia. This 4,000 pound beast was named Tilikum, Tilly for short. The film well documents the constraints put on Tilikum during his life at Sealand, including eight shows per day, seven days per week. A method of training used on Tilikum at Sealand included depriving him of food for failing to properly complete tasks. Another method used involved placing Tilikum in with another of the previously trained whales and asking both to perform a trick, if Tilikum failed to do so, both whales were punished. This method led to the other whale lashing out against Tilikum at night when both whales and one additional were locked in a pitch-black twenty foot by thirty foot metal aquarium at night to prevent animal activists from allowing the whales to escape should they have been allowed to stay in the netted-in area that was the harbor for the attraction. The problem the film fails to acknowledge is that these statements are misleading. It never mentions that these practices are outdated and unheard of in modern marine mammal training, stated Elizabeth Parker, a former resident camp counselor who worked at the park for 2 years from 2011 to 2013. Ms. Parker led campers through educational talks, interactions, and activities with animals in the San Diego park, and recently was hired to become an associate trainer for the park beginning in the spring after she graduates from the University of Kansas.On February 20, 1991, a tragic accident occurred at Sealand of the Pacific in which Kelti Burn, a part time Sealand employee and champion swimmer, slipped into the pool during a performance and was taken under by the three whales eventually leading to Ms. Burn drowning in the pool. Despite the film and many reports claiming that Tilikum was the whale that attacked Ms. Burn, there is no solid evidence that Tilikum was in fact the whale that drowned Kelti Burn. Although this tragic accident did occur, the film portrays this event blaming Tilikum using only two witnesses to the attack. Although, the two friends were present the day of the attack, their claims can very easily be explained away by the idea of selective attention: the process by which a person can selectively pick out one message from a mixture of messages occurring simultaneously. [Selective Attention] This can easily explain how the two women could truly believe in their testimony, albeit not necessarily true in reality, being that Tilikum had the only distinctly identifiable feature in his collapsed dorsal fin. Again, the film plays against viewers emotions by using eyewitness testimony from an event that dates back nearly twenty five years prior to the interview for the documentary. With such a large gap of time, it would be difficult to prove such a testimony to be true in a court of law, so why should the filmmakers be allowed to condemn an animal that they claim on multiple occasions to be a sentient being, with a sense of self that is more complex than many mammals, including humans, [Blackfish] to be a murderer without sufficient evidence?Another point that the film discusses are the events that led to a SeaWorld-owned Orca being relocated. Kaleena, the first killer whale born in human care, was separated from her mother at the age of four and one half after being disruptive [Blackfish] during some performances. Orcas are well documented as traveling in pods in the wild, sticking with their family for their entire lives. With that said, it is perfectly understandable for a mother to grieve when her calf is taken from her. Unfortunately, Mrs. Cowperthwaite couldnt stick to the facts in this segment of the film, using some very manipulative video editing to gain sympathy from viewers. The first of the manipulation is that the video clips which are used in the film are from when Kaleena was less than a year old, some of the film being of her actual birth. This would not be misleading if it were identified as such. Instead, it is accompanied by the narrative of relocation, tricking viewers into thinking of the whale being younger than it actually was at the time of the move. Whats more, when an animal is four years old, they are perfectly capable of living on their own. If a four-year-old killer whale was rescued and rehabilitated, it would be returned to the wild without its mother no questions asked (dolphins and killer whales are self-sufficient enough to be released on their own at only one year of age). In addition, the same footage is used to show Katina (Kaleenas mother) grieving after being separated from Kaleena that they use for the separation of Kasatka and Takara. In fact, the whale shown in this footage is neither Katina nor Kasatka, it is Nakai. Nakai is Kasatkas calf that still lives with her in San Diego. To add insult to injury, the video footage is dubbed. Vocalizations are added when Nakai opens his mouth. This is to make it look like he is vocalizing through his mouth when all vocalizations actually come from the blowhole. [Parker]

Once again, Blackfish used multiple misleading tactics in the video editing process, simply to confuse the audience, and used blatantly false video footage that not only was used completely out of context, it was of a male whale that has no relation to Kasatka or Kaleena. The filmmakers use a Humanization approach when dubbing the sounds that Nakai makes and syncing them with when his mouth is open. They chose to alter the reality multiple times in this one scene alone, instead of simply teaching its audience about the behavior of this species, they once again try to swing viewers to share their opinion of the orcas mistreatment.The second death that Tilikum was involved in was that of Daniel P. Dukes during the night of July 7, 1999. For unknown reasons, Mr. Dukes either snuck into or hid in the park after it was closed for the evening, and was found dead the next morning, naked, draped over the back of Tilikum as Tilly swam around his pool as if parading around with the man. In the film, it is portrayed as if the male jumped in the pool and was attacked by Tilikum and the public story is just a public relations cover-up in order to save face. However, according to the official autopsy report, Daniel Dukes only had postmortem abrasions and bruises and these were not the cause of death. According to the report, the most likely cause of death was hypothermia due to not having a wetsuit on, and drowning, likely caused by Tilikum playing with the man [Reyes]. If the man would not have jumped in a pool with a wild animal, this death would have never happened, no excuses, which is why it is hard to place the blame of the accident on Tilly. The third death that Tilikum was involved in, the most controversial and most prominent one to date, tragically occurred on February 24, 2010 when head trainer Dawn Brancheau was pulled into the water by Tilikum when Brancheau was laying with her head next to Tilly on a slide out (a platform on the side of the pool that sits about a foot below the surface of the water). Tilikum pulled Brancheau into the water and would not let go of her for over two hours, until trainers finally coaxed him into a smaller, medical pool in order to calm him down. The film speculates that Tilikum was set off by performing all of his tricks perfectly in the show that afternoon but not being rewarded properly by Brancheau on one occasion prior to the accident. Although there is no way to ever know for a fact, Brancheau was highly regarded as one of the top trainers at all of SeaWorlds parks, dedicated to safety and care of the animals. The film has many quotes that are entirely contradictory as noted by Ms. Parker.Theyre amazingly friendly and understanding and intuitively want to be your companion.He was always happy to see you in the morning.All animals in captivity have a bad life. Theyre all emotionally destroyed. Theyre all psychologically traumatized.Hes killing because hes frustrated.The whales are really bored. [Parker]

Hes not killing to be a savage, hes not killing because hes crazy, hes not killing because he doesnt know what hes doing. Hes killing because hes frustrated, hes got aggravationhe has no outlet for it! [Blackfish]

The tone of the film changes throughout, beginning with how loving the creatures are and how intuitive they seem to be, and ending with how awful their lives are at SeaWorld and how perfectly explainable these deaths are. Even further, how exactly would anyone know what Tilikum is feeling? He is an animal with which we have no way to physically communicate and no way to know what emotions he has in any given moment, if in fact he has any emotion at all. The simple fact is that we do not know, no one knows, and acting as if something like this is fact, shared by experts is simply misinformation and is a blatant lie to the audience.Of everything in the film, though, there is one thing that is completely glossed over, which is so important it changes the entire tone of the movie. Throughout the film, the narrator, combined with film sequences, deliberately leads the audience to believe the trainers are directly interacting with Tilly in the water by using video clips of trainers standing on other whales noses and getting launched into the air by the whales. However, this has not happened a single time in the entirety of the time Tilikum has been at SeaWorld. In fact, because Tilikum had been involved in the death of Kelti Burn in some way, SeaWorld had procedures in place that instructed trainers to never be in the pool with Tilikum [SeaWorld]. In response to the documentary, SeaWorld released multiple documents detailing different aspects of their training protocol for animals and trainers themselves. (These documents can be found at www.SeaWorld.com/truth.)The film Blackfish is one that sets out to mislead its audience right from the beginning. I could never recommend this documentary, being as how deceptive it truly is. As I watched it, I felt myself getting sucked into its midst, and when it ended I, too, was disgusted with SeaWorld. However, researching the underlying facts that the film oh-so-conveniently leaves out has left me with a severe distaste in my mouth. After speaking with Ms. Parker and reading through her personal notes on the film provided to me by her, I am completely appalled at the persuasive techniques used in the film. When it comes right down to it, the film is not, in fact, a documentary, it is propaganda.