By Robert Goldrich

It’s been a whirlwind awards season for Blackfish, director Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s revealing, emotionally wrenching investigation of what being kept in captivity does to killer whales and the devastating results on their human interactions.

Yet for a stretch during which Blackfish earned a BAFTA nomination, an International Documentary Association Award nom, and made the Oscar feature documentary shortlist, Cowperthwaite has kept the recognition in perspective thanks in part to her experience when the film debuted at Sundance in 2013.
“An exciting run began for Blackfish at Sundance,” said Cowperthwaite. “The documentary seemed to be the talk of the town. We were among the first sales coming out of the festival. I was doing constant interviews. But then we went to the Sundance awards show and didn’t win anything. I realized then that if I had a choice between having an award-winning documentary or having everyone see the film, getting them to think about things or change how they think about things, I would absolutely opt for attaining mainstream exposure. I would chose to be an agent of change. Sometimes documentaries can be so esoteric. They can be lovely but end up getting shelved forever. If that happens, then I’ve failed. I want people to realize that documentaries can be engaging—they can be like a great thriller and you can learn something along the way.”

That lesson has indeed been learned by many of those who have seen Blackfish. Magnolia Pictures acquired theatrical distribution for the documentary and licensed the U.S. broadcasting rights to CNN where it has found a significant audience, particularly among young viewers, which in turn has sparked a social media frenzy on the subject.

Cowperthwaite originally set out to make a film about the relationship between humans and their animal counterparts. “I have no history of animal activism,” she told SHOOT. “I was a mother who took her kids to SeaWorld. I didn’t think that there was all that much more there. I didn’t plan on making something controversial. If anything, I thought the film would be more philosophical in nature about a complex relationship in which we are obsessed with animals and injecting ourselves into their lives.”

But the film evolved into something quite different as Cowperthwaite dug more deeply into the death of veteran killer whale trainer Dawn Brancheau at SeaWorld Orlando. On Feb. 24, 2010, Brancheau was brutally attacked and killed by one of the amusement park’s oldest performers, an orca named Tilikum.

“The trainer’s death perplexed me—she was highly skilled. The more I researched, the more questions I had,” said Cowperthwaite. “I couldn’t understand why a highly intelligent animal would bite the hand that feeds it.”

Blackfish goes back to the initial capture of Tilikum in the North Atlantic in 1983 at approximately two years of age. The orca was put in his first non-ocean “home” at Sealand of the Pacific where in 1991 he killed trainer Keltie Byrne. Shortly after, he was sold to SeaWorld Orlando where trainers were largely kept in the dark about Byrne’s death. Blackfish details a case brought against SeaWorld by OSHA, and sheds light on the cruelty of keeping whales in captivity, wresting away baby orcas from their mothers.

This cruelty is a prime factor in what can cause an orca to kill even the trainers who feed and love them—a stark reality that is in sharp contrast to the fact that there is no record of an orca assaulting a human being in the open sea.

Upon seeing Blackfish, California Assemblyman Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica) was moved to act. Two weeks ago he unveiled a bill that, if passed, would ban SeaWorld from using killer whales in its San Diego shows. Bloom said orcas are too large and intelligent to be confined in small tanks for their entire lives.

His measure would also prevent captive breeding and prohibit the import and export of killer whales.

Going indie
The impact of Blackfish is all the more remarkable when you consider that this is just Cowperthwaite’s second independent feature-length documentary. She’s spent 12 years of her career involved in commissioned work on TV, directing, producing and writing documentary programs for such outlets as ESPN, National Geographic, Animal Planet, Discovery and History.

In 2010, Cowperthwaite wrapped her first indie feature-length documentary, City LAX: An Urban Lacrosse Story (SHOOTonline, 6/21/10). Acquired by ESPN and DirecTV, City LAX was developed and co-produced by Tor Myhren, CCO at Grey NY (who later became Grey’s worldwide CCO).

City LAX: An Urban Lacrosse Story introduces us to Erik Myhren (Tor’s brother), a teacher/coach who helps disadvantaged kids at his school find an outlet and positive influence through the unlikely sport of lacrosse. The film chronicles the lives of six 12-year-olds in inner-city Denver as they try to come together as a lacrosse team while they and their families struggle in a gang-ridden neighborhood.

After seeing City LAX, Tim Case, founder and managing partner of Supply & Demand, sought out Cowperthwaite, resulting in the production house representing her for commercials and branded content. Under the Supply & Demand banner, Cowperthwaite has directed documentary-style, real people/patient campaigns for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Now in the aftermath of the awards season for Blackfish, Cowperthwaite had at press time embarked on a branded content assignment for Travelers Insurance out of Fallon Minneapolis.

She enjoys the spot and branded content disciplines. “When you’re in the commercial world, you can really truly direct. In the documentary world, you are a writer, a producer, a director. You’re usually feeding yourself, you’re carrying a tripod, often switching back and forth from your right brain to your left brain, from your logistical producer frame of mind to a creative frame of mind. Sometimes you think to yourself, ‘If I could only just direct.’ Commercials give me that opportunity.”

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