Locals get a chance to experience an Oscar-award-winning documentary on the big screen this week as the The Media Arts Society of Squamish resumes its MASS Cinema screening series.
On Sunday (March 21), The Cove comes to the Adventure Centre with the work of Vancouver-based world champion freediver Mandy-Rae Cruickshank and Kirk Krack
The Cove is an act of covert filmmaking that turns a documentary into a gripping action-adventure thriller and a heart-pounding call for help from the world's oceans.
It begins in Taiji, Japan, where former dolphin trainer Ric O'Barry comes to set things right after a long search for redemption. In the 1960s, it was O'Barry who captured and trained the five dolphins who played the title character in the international television sensation Flipper.
But his close relationship with those dolphins - the very dolphins who sparked a global fascination with trained sea mammals that continues to this day - led O'Barry to a radical change of heart.
One fateful day, a heartbroken O'Barry came to realize that these deeply sensitive, highly intelligent and self-aware creatures so beautifully adapted to life in the open ocean must never be subjected to human captivity again.
This mission brought him to Taiji, a town that appears to be devoted to the wonders and mysteries of the sleek, playful dolphins and whales that swim off their coast.
But in a remote, glistening cove, surrounded by barbed wire and "keep out" signs, lies a dark reality. It is here, under cover of night that the fishermen of Taiji, driven by a multi-billion dollar dolphin entertainment industry and an underhanded market for mercury-tainted dolphin meat engage in an unseen hunt.
The nature of what they do is so chilling, and the consequences are so dangerous to human health, they will go to great lengths to halt anyone from seeing it.
O'Barry joins forces with filmmaker Louis Psihoyos and the Ocean Preservation Society to get to the truth of what's really going on in the cove and why it matters to everyone in the world.
The result is a provocative mix of investigative journalism, eco-adventure and arresting imagery that adds up to an urgent plea for hope.
Matinee screenings of the Cove are at 1and 3 p.m. Sunday (March 21) at the Squamish Adventure Centre. Tickers are $10 at the door or $8 in advance on the website www.mediaartssquamish.com. THE COVE is rated PG 13 for disturbing content.
