The purpose of the campaign/documentary is to bring to light the mistreatment of Orcas in captivity, specifically targeting repeat offender 'Seaworld' who illegally takes baby orcas from their family in the wild, keeps them in too small tanks that they can barely move in, deprives them of food as punishment for not preforming a trick and general abuse and mistreatment.
It focuses in one orca in particular named 'Tilikum' who killed three people and the consequences of keeping orcas like him in captivity. The documentary follows Tilikum from his capture in 1983 and covers incidents of stress, mistreatment by Seaworld and harassment from fellow captive orcas to explain his aggressive behaviour.
Effectiveness as a social action documentary:
Your personal response:
Effectiveness as a social action documentary:
The documentary is effective as it is presented in a a harshly critical and factual manner, critics have stated it as 'aggressive' and 'impassioned'. The documentary features footage from the attacks with many personal interviews and retelling's from previous Seaworld workers on how the orca's were captured and treated. The shock value comes in form of the documentary not holding back on describing events, fully explaining and describing how the baby orcas were illegally captured and taken from their mothers, how the orcas kept in cramped captivity fought each other and how the trainers killed by Tilikum died.
Your personal response:
Personally I fully agree with the message this documentary is portraying, the way Seaworld has been revealed to treat their orcas is simply cruel. The small tanks they're kept in outside of shows are unhealthy and psychologically damaging, leading to the stress and aggression that lead to the deaths of trainers. Taking them from their mothers in the wild is also damaging and along side the health issues cause by the living conditions, leaves the orcas unable to be returned to the wild.
