Blackfish is a 2013 documentary presented on DVD.

Never capture what you can't control.

On February 24, 2010, police were called to a marine park in Florida after a killer whale had taken the life of one of its trainers. The whale, Tilikum, had killed before, but yet had been allowed to continue performing. So what exactly went wrong?

Shocking, never-before-seen footage and riveting interviews with trainers and experts manifest the orca’s extraor­dinary nature, the species’ cruel treatment in captivity over the last four decades, and the growing disillusionment of workers who were misled and endangered by the multi-billion dollar sea-park industry. BLACKFISH challenges us to consider our relationship to nature and reveals how little we humans have learned from these highly intelligent and enormously sentient fellow mammals.

Awards:

• Nominated Best Documentary Gabriela Cowperthwaite BAFTA Film Awards 2014
• Won WAFCA Award Best Documentary – Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Awards 2013
• Won Best Documentary Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards 2013
• 12 other nominations
• 5 other wins

Blackfish documentary reviews:

“Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite creates a fascinating character study of Tilikum, part of a revered species without a single confirmed kill of a human in the wild. Captivity is where Blackfish's e­vidence continually points the blame for Tilikum's deadly behavior.” Tampa Bay Times

“Righteous, captivating and entirely successful as single-issue-focused documentaries go, Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s film draws on startling video footage and testimonies from former orca trainers, building an authoritative argument on behalf of this majestic species.” Variety

“The movie is revealing, wrenching, and important, a reminder that what feels wrong in our gut—the effort to turn free-roaming and unknowable beasts into caged vaudevillians—is always worth investigating.” Village Voice

“Blackfish, a troubling exposé of Sea World’s hazardous entertainment trade, does much to restore a realistic sense of danger, interviewing former park workers who detail their shoddy, nonscientific training, and chronicling the much-suppressed history of whale-on-human violence.” Time Out New York