Cove Story

Dolphins are among the most intelligent creatures on the planet. But dolphin-human interaction isn’t exactly all Flipper and Sea World antics. In fact, Ric O’Barry — the man who captured and trained the five dolphins used in the Flipper television series — had a change of heart after getting to know those dolphins; he went undercover with Boulder’s Oceanic Preservation Society to examine what the fisherman do after dark in Taiji, Japan, in response to global demand for dolphin entertainment (yeah…Sea World isn’t looking so fun anymore) and dolphin meat (often mercury-tainted).

The Oscar-nominated documentary film The Cove tells the story of this examination, where underwater sound and camera experts, free divers and many others managed to catalogue the slaughter of dolphins carried out at night in Taiji, despite opposition from local police and the fishermen themselves.

Watch The Cove tonight at 7 p.m. at the Dairy Center for the Arts, 2590 Walnut Street in Boulder; the film will be followed by a Q&A panel session with environmentalists and filmmakers from the cast and crew. Admission is $15, and proceeds will benefit radio station KGNU.

“This allows people to come out and not only see and gain information from a film that they might not otherwise see, but also support a local organization that helped make it, and a local media outlet that brings stories like that to Colorado,” notes Annie Sugar, Denver fundraising director for KGNU. “The ideology behind The Cove aligns perfectly with the progressive, pro-environmental ideology at KGNU. It just made sense.”

Visit www.thedairy.org or call 303-444-7328 for tickets.
Wed., Feb. 24, 7 p.m., 2010