Everyone loves a balloon." With these words documentary-maker Louie Psihoyos describes how they sneaked a rather large component of their high-tech surveillance system past suspicious Japanese officials. It was a four-metre long, helium-filled blimp, painted as whale, used to film aerial shots over the Taji coastline for The Cove.
The Cove -
described as "part horror, part spy thriller, part corruption expose and part redemption tale" - will be presented by the Tauranga Film Society at 6:20pm, Wednesday, May 4, at Rialto Cinema.
The Japanese seaside town of Taji promotes itself as a paradise for whale watching and attracts many tourists to its aquariums and colourful murals. However, Taji harbours a guilty little secret ... in a remote inlet not far along the coastline, some 23,000 dolphins are slaughtered each year.
Of course, this would kill the tourist trade if word got out, so the locals, aided by the police, go to extraordinary lengths to keep the cove hidden from human eyes.
Armed with underwater cameras disguised as rocks, night-vision cameras and a hovering whale as an eye in the sky, the film-makers in turn went to extraordinary lengths to infiltrate and record the annual dolphin kill.
Each dolphin hunt starts with what appears to be the benign capture of dolphins for the international aquarium trade, with the "best" dolphins fetching $150,000 each.
After the "lucky" dolphins are picked out, the remainder are herded into the remote cove, where the sea literally turns red. The dolphin meat is sold to unsuspecting Japanese consumers as whale meat.
For a complete change of pace, but keeping with the Japanese locale, the society follows up with an animated feature, Spirited Away, on Wednesday, May 18, with an earlier start time than usual of 5:45pm.
Director Miyazaki Hayao presents an exotic animated dreamscape set mainly in a traditional Japanese bath-house.
Ten-year-old Chihiro has stumbled, with her parents, into a strange spirit world that exists in tandem with the "real" world. The bath-house is a retreat for ghosts, spirits and deities who are taking a breather from the human world, and Chihiro must labour there in order to discover how to rescue her parents.
Miyazaki has created a deeply nostalgic film, filled with gorgeous images.
The Tauranga Film Society shows films every second Wednesday at Rialto Cinema. Please ask at the Rialto counter for the full year's programme or contact Neale neale@orcon.net.nz.
