By Sarah Sluis
ShoWest coordinated a first-of-its-kind panel discussion Thursday morning on "The Emergence of Social Issue Films" before the screening of the Sundance Audience Award winner The Cove. Ricky Strauss, president of Participant Media, producer of this acclaimed documentary and other socially engaged films like Syriana, An Inconvenient Truth and Good Night and Good Luck, called theatre owners "unsung heroes" in Participant's mission to "inspire and compel social change through great storytelling."
Howard Cohen, co-president of Roadside Attractions, distributor of The Cove along with Lionsgate, noted that "people are getting more used to seeing documentaries" and that "when the subject matter hits people, [a documentary] can work very broadly."
Without a doubt, The Cove has the potential to play very broadly indeed. It's the powerful story of the efforts of former dolphin trainer Richard O'Barry (the man who trained TV's beloved Flipper) to expose the wholesale slaughter of dolphins in the fishing town of Taiji, Japan. The film's director Louis Psihoyos, a National Geographic cinematographer and founder of the Ocean Preservation Society, joins a team of divers and technology experts in their dangerous mission to record this horrific practice, which has been covered up by the Japanese government.
Speaking of his experience, Psihoyos told the ShoWest audience, "It was like I walked into a Stephen King novel." His movie has the suspense of a high-tech thriller, while being an endearing love letter to our aquatic neighbors and an expose of the savage, pointless murders happening in Japan's notorious cove. And let's not even talk about the film's revelations about the potential for mercury poisoning in our food. The Cove will surely be one of the most acclaimed and watched documentaries of the year and, more importantly, a real agent for change in the Participant spirit.
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