When We Talk About Animals · Law, Environment & Animals Program at Yale Law School

Ep. 20 – Gabriela Cowperthwaite on the legacy of “Blackfish”

·48 min·2 clips

"It's not that you want to see it, is that you want it to see you."

1. When We Talk About Animals Ep. 20 examines the legacy of Blackfish, the documentary credited with the "Blackfish effect" on SeaWorld, with director Gabriela Cowperthwaite. 2. Hosts Viveka Morris and Lindsay Stern of Yale's podcast interview Cowperthwaite, who made Blackfish after about a dozen years of TV documentary work and later directed the 2017 drama Megan Leavey. 3. Cowperthwaite says she began with a question about why trainer Dawn Brancheau was killed by an orca, and had "no thesis" going in. 4. The intro cites a $76,000 budget, more than 60 million viewers, a 60% SeaWorld stock drop, a unanimous House vote for $1 million in orca captivity research, and the end of orca breeding and shows by 2019. 5. Cowperthwaite says she chose to speak as a SeaWorld-going mom and to feature former trainers as the "portal of entry," because audiences are "stubborn adolescents" who dislike being told what to think. 6. She notes that SeaWorld's investor risk disclosures eventually listed storytelling about park accidents, that SeaWorld attended Sundance in disguise, and that she still gets calls from lawyers for investors. 7. Responding to Dan Ashe's argument for keeping animals in zoos, she supports rehabilitation and release, sea pens, and sanctuaries, but calls the claim that captivity educates "really goofy." 8. Citing John Berger's essay "Why Look at Animals," the hosts and Cowperthwaite discuss knocking on glass, her view that "it's not that you want to see it, is that you want it to see you," and a bird-in-a-shoebox metaphor. 9. She describes facing social media trolls, a hacked Facebook account, threatening emails, and fear of being sued, and says she wondered whether animal scientists and former trainers should be the lead voices. 10. Suited to documentary fans and anyone weighing the ethics of zoos and marine parks.

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