Interview with Louie Psihoyos, director of The Cove, a feature length documentary on the annual dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan, and the Mercury-tainted dolphin meat sold to the unknowing public. Tokyo, Japan, 20/10/2009.
This is The Cove’s second time in Japan, and each time it comes into town carrying lots of baggage. The first time through a few years ago, toting their massive amount of production equipment from the U.S. through Narita International airport the eight-person team, including ex-Flipper dolphin trainer Richard O’Barry, were here to document an annual event that largely remains hidden from the public’s eyes: the drive hunting of a couple thousand dolphins, porpoises and whales into a cove for sale and slaughter. With the help of hidden cameras, state-of-the-art equipment and military knowhow, this team, led by director Louie Psihoyos, was somehow able to outsmart a group of fisherman and the local police force in capturing on film what Psihoyos calls the “Citizen Kane of environmental documentaries.” While the former may not have been all that difficult, what is quickly proving to be an extremely arduous task for the crew now that the movie is out on the film festival circuit and has finally hit the Tokyo International Film Festival (T.I.F.F.) as an additional screening, is how to get it into theaters nationwide. Because now in his second time back Psihoyos is finding out it’s the cultural baggage that everyone seems up in arms about: Over-fishing! Culture! Whaling! Tradition! Selling Flipper! Bad Economy! Eating Flipper! Yummy!
The emotional baggage, which inevitably gets heavier and heavier as arguments escalate, results largely from ignorance. Ignorance of the Japanese population that this is going on in a sleepy little coastal town a couple hundred kilometers from Osaka. Ignorance that is fostered by a mass media fine with scuttling reports that are deemed too sensitive toward certain influential groups. Ignorance of what exactly is in the food on your plate. They say it’s bliss, but maybe that’s because more than anything else bliss is a nice fat bottom line to go with your sashimi and beer at the end of the day. So exactly what are the issues? With so many sides to choose from, I decided to try to talk to both the office of the mayor of the town of Taiji, Wakayama (where the film takes place), Mr. Kazutaka Sangen*, and the director of The Cove, Louie Psihoyos, in order to straighten it out for everyone.
Read the entire interview at http://hesomagazine.com/2009/10/the-cove-interview-with-louie-psihoyos/
