Tag: Dawn Brancheau

Blackfish Will Make Its International Premiere At Sundance London

This is great news, and will be the perfect way to take Blackfish overseas for the first time:

The programme announced today includes 18 feature films and nine short films across four sections, including a new UK Spotlight. Twenty-three films will make their international, European or UK premieres at Sundance London. Ten are by female filmmakers and six are by first-time feature filmmakers. The films collectively received 12 awards when they premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, U.S.A.. Among the artists expected to attend Sundance London are Lake Bell, Mike Birbiglia, Jimmy Carr, the Eagles, Barbara Kopple and Peaches, as well as Sundance Institute President & Founder Robert Redford.

For any Londoners, tickets will be available from 9:00 am GMT, March 15, at www.sundance-london.com.

 

Blackfish Premiere

After almost two years of shoots and editing, Blackfish was finally shown on a big screen, in front of an auditorium full of normal people who don’t obsess about orcas. There were some gasps and murmurs during the viewing, when some particularly stunning footage of trainer injury, or orca captures, came on the screen. And most of the audience stayed after to listen to the former SeaWorld trainers featured in the movie answer questions.

Now, we wait to see if a distributor picks up the movie, which is the next step to getting it in front of a general audience. Whether and how that happens will depend in part on how Blackfish is received by the critics. And here is the first review, from Indiewire:

Nobody from SeaWorld agreed to an interview for “Blackfish,” Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s searing take on the theme park’s mistreatment of killer whales and the dozens of deaths that have resulted from it. Instead, the majority of its subjects are ex-SeaWorld trainers frustrated by the negligence they witnessed up close and willing to speak out. Nevertheless, based on the evidence on display in “Blackfish,” Cowperthwaite’s case against SeaWorld would change little with an opposing point of view. The movie makes a strong case against the captivity of killer whales under sub-circus conditions, but the stance is made even more horrifying because so little has changed in the history of the organization. “Blackfish” is less balanced investigation than full-on takedown of a broken system.

My only quibble is that the former trainers in Blackfish are not “disgruntled.” They are “disillusioned.” But it’s a review that we are pretty happy with.

Here’s one more moment from last night’s premiere that was pretty cool. Sundance Institute’s Director Of Programming, Trevor Groth, did us the honor of introducing Blackfish and Gabriela. And he talked about how it impacted him. You can’t really see him, but you can hear him:

What Are These Signs Saying?

This must be a good omen: that’s ex-SeaWorld trainer John Hargrove on the slopes, 8 hours before the Blackfish premiere:

LibertyShamu

Sundance Posting

I’m in Park City, and looking forward to the start of Blackfish screenings at Sundance. I’ll be trying to post some updates on this page, but given the pace of things, and the ease of posting to Facebook while on the move, I’ll probably be posting more frequently to my Facebook page. Score one for Facebook over WordPress.

Here’s a nice preview I found this morning, which has Gabriela explaining what Blackfish is about and what it took to make the film:

Synopsis:
Notorious killer whale Tilikum is responsible for the deaths of three individuals, including a top killer whale trainer. Blackfish shows the sometimes devastating consequences of keeping such intelligent and sentient creatures in captivity.

Blackfish quick pitch:
The story shows us what can happen when you put one of the world’s most intelligent, powerful, and beautiful predators in a tank of water, make them do tricks, and “add humans” to the recipe.

Why it’s worth checking out at Sundance and beyond:
Oh I think you might be in for a ride. I guess I’m hoping you experience the same shock and discovery I experienced while making the film. But I had 2 years. You get 82 minutes!

How it all came together:
I think the thing that takes everybody by surprise is that I took my kids to Sea World multiple times before making this film. When I started making the movie, I thought I was making a movie about the death of a trainer. It was only when I started filming that I discovered that nothing in this industry is what it seems. I was blown away by what I learned. So from that moment on, I think the biggest challenge for me was not putting things in the film. There was so much disturbing information, I found myself wanting to shoe horn any alarming fact into the film, even if it wasn’t part of the story. But in the end, I refrained because I didn’t want the film to feel manipulative. I knew if we had a chance to make this film stand out, it would be because we stuck to telling the story, not inundating an audience with damning facts designed to scare them or piss them off. So one of my strongest challenges was staying disciplined about telling the story. 

I think another of the biggest challenges was trying to interview people. It’s amazing how terrified people are of that marine park. Sometimes people would be willing to speak anonymously, but even they would eventually back out for fear of repercussions. Twice we had already flown to locations, unpacked our gear, only to learn that our interviewees had backed out. It was frustrating. This extends to other parks too. Our fixers at Loro Parque were terrified of being on camera for fear of what the owner of Loro Parque would do. They stood away from our cameras and whispered when they spoke. I want to say there was nothing to be afraid of, but we were followed and our pictures were taken on more than one occasion.

On the Blackfish clip (click here):
The clip is actually our opening. I thought of the scene while I was interviewing a trainer. He was describing what it was like to do a “rocket hop.” This is a trick the experienced trainers do at Sea World, where the trainer is launched up into the air essentially off the nose of an orca. To me, the scene is a visual metaphor for the spectacle of the show above water versus the reality underneath. Above water you see a brilliant spectacle, a beautiful show with happy animals and trainers. Beneath the surface, you see what could arguably turn into a terrifying interaction at any moment. It still scares me every time I watch it!

Blackfish Is About To Premiere At Sundance

As many of you might know, for the past 18 months I’ve been helping documentary film-maker Gabriela Cowperthwaite make a documentary about Tilikum, Dawn Brancheau and SeaWorld. She first contacted me about the idea after reading Killer In The Pool, and the aim of the film is to try and help people understand why Tilikum’s life resulted in Dawn Brancheau’s tragic death.

Now the film is finished. It’s called Blackfish, and it will be shown to an audience for the first time on Saturday evening at the Sundance Film Festival (here’s the film’s page).

We’ve been flying below the radar, but here’s an early mention about the film, in a story about Hollywood and orcas. And Indiewire recommended it as one of 20 films to see. They also posted the only clip of Blackfish to be released so far. It’s the intro to the movie, so just a taste of what follows (click the image to play):

Screen Shot 2013-01-16 at 3.59.49 PM

I just arrived in Park City for Sundance, and will soon be joined by the full production team as well as many of the trainers interviewed in the film. I’ll be posting about the premiere and the Sundance experience over the coming week, so stay tuned. In the meantime, here is Gabriela talking about Blackfish:

SeaWorld Waterwork Update

Last month, I wrote about SeaWorld’s whale interaction protocols since Dawn Brancheau died, and the fact that waterwork desensitization with certain whales had advanced to the point of swimming with whales in the med pool.

This picture of Orkid in the med pool with a trainer in San Diego is now making the rounds online:

SanDiegoWaterwork

 

Update: here’s one more.

SanDiegoWaterwork1

Frontline: A Whale Of A Business

First aired in 1997, PBS Frontline’s A Whale Of A Business was the pioneering investigation of the business and practices of marine mammal parks. The reporting and materials Frontline gathered and put online were invaluable when I first started to report Killer In The Pool.

Now the documentary has been uploaded to YouTube and you can watch the entire report PBS aired.

Inside SeaWorld: Waterwork And Protocols For Working Killer Whales After Dawn

With OSHA and SeaWorld headed back to Judge Welsch’s court in January to discuss the timing and specifics of the abatement of the dangers OSHA identified in its 2010 citations of SeaWorld Florida, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at what protocols SeaWorld has been using to define how trainers should interact with killer whales since Dawn Brancheau was killed in February 2010.

The protocols will presumably be a part of the January hearing. And what comes out of that hearing–what Judge Welsch decides regarding SeaWorld’s desire for more time to work out a comprehensive abatement plan and what he does in response to OSHA’s contention that SeaWorld has not been adequately abating the dangers and needs to be in compliance–could have a big impact on what SeaWorld’s killer whale shows will look like in the coming year and beyond, particularly if Welsch decides that the practices that are in place right now are not adequate protection for trainers.

Moreover, as a backdrop to the approaching abatement hearing, SeaWorld continues to move steadily forward in its waterwork desensitization program. I reported over the summer that SeaWorld was going to initiate waterwork desensitization in its medical pools, where the floors can be raised. And I also pondered SeaWorld’s potential strategy and timeline for trying to restore waterwork to its shows. That waterwork desensitization has now progressed to the point where the med pool floors have been left completely down, so that both killer whales and trainers are not beached or standing, but swimming. In California, for example, at least four whales (including Orkid) have been in the med pool, and held under control on a hand target, while a trainer floats nearby. In Texas, they have had Tuar, for one, conduct a perimeter swim past a floating trainer. SeaWorld management has told trainers it will not conduct waterwork in a pool that doesn’t have a rising floor. That makes me wonder whether and when SeaWorld Florida might consider moving waterwork desense and training to G pool (which is where the first rising floor was installed).

But back to the January abatement hearing. To set the context, here are some excerpts from Judge Welsch’s ruling last May upholding OSHA’s citations of SeaWorld:

As with Tilikum, the Secretary proposes that for performances, SeaWorld either install physical barriers between its trainers and killer whales, or require its trainers to maintain a minimum distance from the killer whales. This proposed abatement is technologically feasible; SeaWorld has been using it since February 24, 2010. SeaWorld has banned waterwork with its killer whales during performances, and trainers perform drywork from behind barriers.The proposed abatement is also economically feasible. SeaWorld did not argue that performing drywork from behind barriers or banning trainers from waterwork during performances affected it economically. SeaWorld’s killer whales, including Tilikum, have continued to perform in shows at Shamu Stadium without the presence of trainers in the water with them. Trainers perform drywork from behind barriers or at a minimum distance.

Later in his ruling he writes:

Prohibiting waterwork and using physical barriers and minimum distances eliminate the trainers’ exposure to the recognized hazard of working with killer whales. Proximity to the killerwhales is the factor that determines the risk to the trainers. Dr. Duffus stated, “The fundamental fact with captivity is the proximity. . . . The fact of the matter is simple proximity. . . If you’re close to a killer whale, they can potentially inflict harm” (Tr. 851).

Welsch, as far as I can tell, never defines a minimum distance the trainers should maintain if they are not separated from a killer whale by a barrier. But he clearly seems to believe that maintaining some sort of gap is both proper and feasible abatement. OSHA’s view seems to be that the minimum distance should be whatever distance is required to keep trainers safe. What that distance is, and what Judge Welsch believes it needs to be, presumably is something that the January hearing might clarify.

What Welsch might not know as the hearing approaches is that despite his apparent belief that SeaWorld trainers have EITHER been working from behind barriers during shows since February 2010 OR maintaining a minimum distance , the reality is not quite so clear-cut; that in fact there continue to be plenty of instances in which SeaWorld trainers have direct contact with the whales during drywork, with no barrier and no minimum distance. The Side By Side segment of the SeaWorld One Ocean show, for example, regularly features trainers rubbing down, and hugging, whales on the slideout.

Here’s a sequence from an August 2012 show at SeaWorld Florida:

This is from an October 2012 show, also at SeaWorld Florida.

So what are the protocols that trainers follow for such interactions? Interestingly, it is not at all clear that the OSHA citations and Judge Welsch’s ruling had Continue reading “Inside SeaWorld: Waterwork And Protocols For Working Killer Whales After Dawn”

SeaWorld’s Waterwork Timeline

Since hearing that SeaWorld will start waterwork desensitization, I’ve been trying to puzzle out SeaWorld’s waterwork gameplan and timeline.

Here is what I have learned so far, and maybe all you smart people out there–regardless of your views on captivity–can help figure out the strategy.

Waterwork desense will officially begin today (Monday) in the med pool at SeaWorld California. I don’t know if the other parks also have whales and trainers lined up to begin desense work, and are also starting today, but it seems likely, given that the SeaWorld parks tend to work in synch with one another on major program changes like this.

Apparently, this commencement of waterwork desense (the first step toward getting trainers and orcas back on track toward full waterwork capability in the big show pools) follows a tour of the parks that SeaWorld’s chief zoological honcho, Brad Andrews, conducted earlier this year. Andrews and a SeaWorld management team met with the Shamu trainers, and showed them a video of the prototype fast-rising floor that has been installed in SeaWorld Florida’s G pool (the Dine With Shamu pool in which Dawn Brancheau was killed). The floor took just under a minute to surface, and Andrews told the trainers that similar rising floors would be installed in the show pools at all the SeaWorld parks, a major construction program that could take something like 12 to 18 months.

In the meantime, Andrews said, waterwork desense would start up in the med pools. Normally, waterwork desense (for an animal that has been removed from waterwork, say for being too aggressive) is initiated in the med pool with the floor raised up high. Trainers work with the animal through a series of behaviors, and with each successful evolution the floor is lowered a bit, until the waterwork is in fact taking place in the water. From there, the desense moves into one of the smaller back pools alongside the med pool. That way, if anything goes wrong nets can be used to try and corral the orca back into the med pool, where the floor can be raised. And if the back pool desense regimen is successful, and the orca consistently executes the behaviors asked, the desense program moves back into the show pool. This process can take a number of months.

With the current desense program, however, Andrews told Shamu trainers that no waterwork would be performed in a pool that does not have a fast-rising floor. So desense will be conducted in the med pool, and then jump directly to the show pools once the floors are installed there (though Florida, with the G pool floor, will presumably have the option of using G pool as a bridge to the show pool). That means that the desense work with the whales and trainers selected, will progress very slowly and carefully in the med pools for a year or more, so that the orcas and trainers are ready to move into the show pools when they have fast-rising floors.

The big question, assuming my information is solid, is what SeaWorld’s waterwork gameplan is. Unless SeaWorld successfully appeals the OSHA ruling (the next step would be to file an appeal with the US Circuit Court Of Appeals), Judge Welsch’s decision means that waterwork is effectively banned from performances at SeaWorld Florida (the park cited by OSHA following Brancheau’s death). If they are successful, then all of SeaWorld’s parks, having desensed selected orcas, will be in a position to resume waterwork.

If the appeal fails (or is not filed), then it gets more complicated. The OSHA ruling applies only to performance waterwork, so SeaWorld is in theory free to resume training waterwork in all its parks whenever it likes. OSHA could, however, conduct a follow-up inspection and try to get the ban on waterwork applied to training as well. That would, no doubt, be a similarly contentious and drawn-out legal process.

But training waterwork does not really get SeaWorld back into show waterwork, which presumably is the goal. So another possibility is that SeaWorld finishes installing the fast-rising floors, and whatever other safety measures SeaWorld hopes will protect trainers (like spare air systems), and then goes before OSHA to argue that these safety innovations “mitigate” the dangers that OSHA identified. The mitigation measures have to provide protection that is equal or greater than maintaining distance between trainers and orcas, or the use of physical barriers between trainers and orcas. So that might be a hard case to make. But just because it is hard does not mean that it is unwinnable. And if SeaWorld succeeds in winning a decision that says the floors, spare air, and any other safety measures, mitigate the dangers, then they are back in the waterwork business.

The final, seemingly problematic, scenario that I can come up with, addresses what happens if SeaWorld DOES NOT win either an appeal, or succeed in an effort to mitigate the dangers with the floors and spare air. In that scenario, SeaWorld could, in theory, simply resume waterwork at the SeaWorld Texas and SeaWorld California parks, since they were not cited by OSHA. That would obviously open SeaWorld up to a massive liability and PR hit if another trainer was injured  or killed during waterwork. And OSHA could, and likely would(?), move to try and cite those parks for exposing tariners to dangers as well. So this scenario has lots of problems and risks for SeaWorld, and seems unlikely. But it is at least in theory possible.

So, that’s all my thinking on where this med pool desense work could go. Anyone else out there have thoughts, insights or comments on how this could all play out?

SeaWorld Taking Steps To Resume Waterwork

Been getting word that at least one SeaWorld Shamu stadium has called a meeting for Monday to discuss beginning waterwork desensitization in the medical pool. That’s the first step to resuming waterwork with SeaWorld’s killer whales, which was stopped in the aftermath of Dawn Brancheau’s and stayed on hold through SeaWorld’s appeal of OSHA’s citation of SeaWorld Florida for exposing trainers to injury from orcas.

I don’t know if all of SeaWorld’s parks are planning to begin waterwork desense training, or whether the training will lead to the resumption of waterwork outside of shows (which Judge Ken Welsch’s OSHA ruling allows) or even in shows that either take place outside of Florida (which was the only park OSHA cited) or in shows everywhere based on a claim that fast-rising floors and other safety measures mitigate the dangers OSHA cited.

But I do know that SeaWorld management, including Brad Andrews and Jim Atchison, have for a while been telling trainers–many of whom have been discouraged by the lack of waterwork and considering moving on from Shamu Stadium–that, despite OSHA, waterwork will be back. And also that plans to install fast-rising pool floors will continue.

SeaWorld management has also been telling trainers that Judge Welsch erred in his ruling, so it seems likely that SeaWorld will appeal his ruling further (it has 60 days to file). In the meantime, SeaWorld is within days of having to demonstrate to OSHA the steps it will take to mitigate the dangers to trainers OSHA identified.

So lots of pieces are in movement, and only SeaWorld knows where it hopes to take them. But a plan to begin waterwork desense shows that waterwork in some form is still very much part of SeaWorld’s plan.

Stay tuned.