The recent documentary The Cove has been one of many teatime talks lately. It won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. I have not yet seen the documentary, but from the look of the trailer it does seem like a pretty fierce production work .Documentary :: The Cove
However, I am still feeling very controversial about this documentary. This line made me feel the documentary was exaggeratedly dramatized: "When we first got to the country we had no idea who was following us..do you think they know we're here?...we didn't know if it was the whalers, or the Japanese mafia." This wouldn't happen if you did your homework on who you might piss off in the Japanese fishing business before you get there. From the trailer, it just seems the documentary focuses more about the secretive, the forbidden, the mafia, the drama, the hidden camera perspective which gets any human being hyped about because we all love voyeurism now don't we. The Cove better be full of relevant facts, and from all perspectives.
For your information, mercury is not only found in dolphins, but also in tuna and swordfish, yet we still love our tuna mayo sandwiches, don't we? I guess tunas are just too butt-ugly to make a documentary about. I can't help but commenting on this rather selfish westernized thinking. You have to accept reality and actually respect the cultures of different countries. In India, we all know that cows are sacred and will always be. Have you seen them making movies and protesting about our culture of beef eating? And gawd knows how the reckless slaughtering of many cows would flip your stomach upside down if you saw it for yourself.
Good on the people who actually dig dedicating their lives to riding dolphins and holding on tight to them so the fishermen won't be able to hunt them down. As for the rest who sit home, criticize and rage against a minority of Japanese for having a different culture than yours, I recommend you focus your energy on doing something more productive and actually relevant to the life you are living and directing. Get your own flight ticket to Japan and hunt down the fishermen if you really care. But don't complain if the whole of India comes after you for having that grilled steak while waiting to board your flight at the airport.
The team of "The Cove" better be serious extremist vegetarians.
The Cove is a bit like Bowling for Columbine meets Borat meets The Stepford Wives (serenity, ugly truth, revelation, you know). Who would've thought?
ReplyDeleteThe trailer at least, as any other trailers, was very well made and certainly it would garner enough interest to rake in the dough. Whether its actual cause ends up as the main benefactor of the effort, remains a question.
It calls for further reading and research. Nevertheless, a regular audience, such as myself, would certainly be intrigued to watch it; without doing anything beyond a mild shudder after that. The message sticks as we step out of the cinema... and fade away as we hit Baskin-Robbins.
This is a lengthy comment.
You've explained well what i was indeed suspecting of this documentary. The lengthy comment was well worth it. Thanks for clarifying further my confused thoughts on The Cove.
ReplyDeleteBaskin-Robbins is what I'll remember "to-do" after I watch it :p