The Cove

To me, documentaries are the most powerful visual media. The whole basis of documentaries is that they're filmed by people for the purpose of sharing their cause or project with the world. They don't have to be big-budget or overly processed. This gives the documenters full creative reign of their work: they tailor what footage they use to portray their message. The most shocking film and message I've seen in a documentary was from The Cove.

This documentary follows the actions of a small team (OPS or Oceanic Preservation Society) of activists, freedivers, and the filmmakers who capture it all. Ric O'Bay inspired this documentary from the horrors he learned about Taiji. This coastal fishing village in Japan is responsible for killing thousands of dolphins sold as food. Not only is this a cruel fate for the dolphins, the meat is highly radioactive and dangerous to consume.

The cooperation to expose the horrors of this dolphin industry took an enormous amount of planning, logistics, and communication. Dozens of bags of camera equipment and gear had to be flown in as inconspicuously as possible to Taiji. One scene shows a sped-up team effort to get everything packed up. People were moving in and out of the room constantly as the sun rose and set.

To observe the suspicious activities of the Taiji fishermen, OPS navigated through loaded questions from the Japanese police. The fishermen killing the dolphins wanted the outsiders to get jailed so they would leave: this included provocations while holding film cameras (to give proof OPS broke the law) and harrassing them if they got too close to restricted areas.

When it came down to actually filming the dolphin-slaughter, OPS had to procure stealthy cameras and night gear for sneaking around. They enlisted the help of special-effects craftsmen to build realistic rock covers for the cameras and procured military-grade thermal night-vision. Before the crew snuck out into the dangerous restricted cove area, they had to carefully plan their course of action. First, they acquired a map of the area from the police. Then, they delegated tasks: the freedivers would place underwater recording equipment, others would spread out and place the rock cameras, someone was there to film it all, someone drove the car to drop off and pick the team up, and others communicated through walkie-talkies to alert the team of danger. The plan took meticulous planning, as one small mistake could have the whole team in jail and the evidence lost.

The stress of the operation was worth it- the footage they captured of the dolphin-slaughter the following morning was eye-opening and horrific. The underwater recorders captured the stress of the dolphin's cries and the cameras captured the fishermen brutally killing the dolphins, the water turning red with their blood, and the fishermen's casual cigarettes and conversations following it all.

The point of this documentary is to spread awareness of the issue. The documentary's website encourages supporters to share the message and other information through social media to friends (especially those in Japan) and even to Japanese officials. There is power in numbers all working for the same cause. Respectful and persistent action to educate about and eradicate the issue are important responses to the powerful documentary.