Blackfish is an award-winning documentary premiered in January 2013 created by CNN Films. It is a heartbreaking documentary, produced by Gabriella Cowperthwaite, about the drastic psychological scars of orcas kept in captivity and used to entertain crowds at theme parks such as SeaWorld in the United States. This is an astounding and well-received film based on the habits and personality of captive killer whales that perform in entertainment parks and the dangers they pose to their trainers. In the beginning of the movie, it claims that killer whales in the wild are peaceful and sentient mammals that do not show any records of aggression against humans. Yet, those orcas kept in captivity have history of such attacks. Killer whales are intelligent, family-oriented mammals which are susceptible to psychological distresses, frustration and boredom. They start to show signs of aggressiveness while living in demeaning captivity probably due to lives of mistreatment. Tilikum is an example as portrayed in the film. He was responsible for drowning a Canadian trainer in …show more content…
It contains a lot of disturbing imagery, including some raw, vivid footage of attacks on trainers and tapes of wounded orcas. There are also interviews with eyewitnesses’ account and specialist knowledge by former trainers of SeaWorld. The film reveals the dark case that in order to protect its own interests – for earning entertainment dollars and whale sperms, SeaWorld has repeatedly downplayed injuries and fatalities caused by Tilikum and other whales, attributing them to ‘trainer error’ and attempted to pass it off as an accident. Sarcastically, a number of former trainers being interviewed in the documentary said that this was not the case and claimed that the park tried to withhold information regarding attacks from the public, even from its own