The Cove in Japan

Winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, The Cove follows a high-tech dive team on a mission to discover the truth about the international dolphin capture trade as practiced in Taiji, Japan. Utilizing state-of-the-art techniques, including hidden microphones and cameras in fake rocks, the team uncovers how this small seaside village serves as a horrifying microcosm of massive ecological crimes happening worldwide.

There's a great post about The Cove's premiere at the Tokyo International Film Festival here:

TIFF initially refused to include The Cove in its green "Action for the Earth!" themed 2009 festival because of its "sensitive" (i.e., blood-drenched, Japan-critical) nature, but persistent interventions by Cove supporter Ben Stiller, TIFF jury president Alejandro González Iñárritu, and other free speech advocates pressured organizers to relent and include it the line-up.

Inside the "sold out" theater TIFF had miraculously discovered a row of empty seats that was now filled with Taiji officials, including Mayor Sangen, "Private Space" and several Fishery Agency suits. When the film ended and audience broke into applause, Mayor Sangen and his entourage trooped out scowling before Louie appeared and the Q&A began.

Louie spoke for a few minutes explaining his motivations and hopes for the film, and admitting to nervousness at standing for the first time before a quintessentially "non-chorus" crowd. He handled the expected "traditional food culture" questions deftly by noting his mother was older than this particular dolphin-killing "tradition" and also responded thoughtfully to queries over why the film seemed to veer from an animal rights appeal to a mercury focused public health alarm.

First published on GreensBlog