Blackfish is a documentary by Gabriel Cowperthwaite, made in 2013, that shows the inner-workings of the sea park industry, namely the cruelty shown towards orca-whales in sea parks and how this changes their behaviour. The documentary swaps between cases of orca violence, but mostly follows Tilikum as an example of how captivity can cause violent tendencies in killer-whales that can, and has, led to fatal accidents.
The narrative of the story follows the life story of Tilikum, mainly focusing.on his capture, movement between sea parks, and the accidents he was involved in. The film does occasionally swap to other orca’s being kept in captivity, using the instances if violence they showed towards trainers as evidence of how captivity can alter behaviour patterns in orca-whales. The documentary also includes. Interviews with trainers, fishermen, SeaWorld managers and witnesses to show different sides of the story and help describe events as they happened.
The film holds a significant place in documentary film history as it has brought light onto a relatively niche industry and links it to modern day activism against animal cruelty. It made $2.3 million in the box office and was shown on Netflix, so has gained notoriety in the documentary genre.
I personally liked the film. I found it a very interesting insight on how Orca-whales are effected by captivity and how harsh life is for those that have been captured. The film also effectively focuses not on the violence the whales could exhibit, but rather the causes foe it and how the industry treats these animals, keeping the point of the film constantly, only showing the violence to such a degree to emphasise the industry’s effect on the whales. I also found the scenes involving more violent moments very harrowing, as they were described and shown in ways that effectively impacted the audience and conveyed the danger and un-naturalism in the behaviour of some orca’s. My only problem with the film is that sometimes it is confusing when a killing happens, and what whales are being described, and even the course of events, due to the narrative switching so often between places and whales. By the end of the film, I was not actually sure how many people Tilikum had killed, and septic that not being the purpose of the film, it still left me feeling unsure about the whale the film had focused on so much.
The film is a participatory documentary, since it interviews people who were involved in Tilikum’s life and uses archive footage to accompany the narration of the interviewed.
I rate Blackfish ★★★★!
Finley Cairns A-Level Film Studies Blog 
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