Blackfish
Please sign the petition here to be send to SeaWorld, Inc : To humanely release the Orca whale known as Tilikum to a seapen for rehab here.
Despite the incident, and others like it involving Tilikum, the giant sea mammal is still the object of both love and empathy from killer whale trainers, including many who have known and worked with him. BLACKFISH introduces us to a handful of former SeaWorld trainers, who share about their initial attraction to working with the whales at the parks and many of whom recall Brancheau’s skill and ability working with the sea mammals. While, at the time, at a loss for understanding why Tilikum attacked a former colleague, with whom the whale had worked for years, they now share their stories, as well as the knowledge they’ve gained since the incident, providing a unique insider’s view of the inner workings of the SeaWorld operation and its twists on both whale facts and reality.
In BLACKFISH, writer/director GABRIELA COWPERTHWAITE not only tells their story, but, through their words and those of renowned and respected whale experts and educators, that of Tilikum himself. Viewers come to understand the complex social and emotional lives of the majestic orcas, enabling them to begin to comprehend the effects removing them from their natural environments can have on the creatures.
BLACKFISH is Tilikum’s story, and is told from the time of his initial capture in the North Atlantic in 1983 at approximately two years of age, to his first non-ocean “home” at another park, Sealand of The Pacific, where, in 1991, he was responsible for killing trainer KELTIE BYRNE. Shortly after, he was sold to SeaWorld Orlando, where trainers were largely kept in the dark about the whale’s involvement in Byrne’s death and permitted to work closely with him.
They share with the audience the “party line” of incorrect whale facts given to park visitors – from diminished whale lifespans to whales performing tricks (or “behaviors,” in SeaWorldspeak) because “they want to.”
