Airdate: Blackfish

On Sunday night ABC2 screens the powerful documentary Blackfish, the story of killer whale Tilikum, which killed three people in the US.

This doco looks at questionable captivity practices and reveals unnerving information that the whale’s offspring is now in numerous other marine parks in the US.

Well worth a look.

Notorious killer whale Tilikum is responsible for the deaths of three individuals, including a top killer whale trainer. The controversial documentary, Blackfish, shows the sometimes devastating consequences of keeping such intelligent and sentient creatures in captivity.

Blackfish, screening as part of the Sunday Best season of feature length documentaries, tells the story of Tilikum, a performing killer whale that killed several people while in captivity.

Along the way, director-producer Gabriela Cowperthwaite compiles shocking footage and emotional interviews to explore the creature’s extraordinary nature, the species’ cruel treatment in captivity, the lives and losses of the trainers and the pressures brought to bear by the multi-billion dollar sea-park industry.

This emotionally wrenching, tautly structured story 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.

8:30pm Sunday ABC2.