The Meeting Place, In Byron Bay Today’s Weekend Review.

We were treated to a sneak preview of the Rest Your Eyes production, Byron Bay, The Meeting Place, this week. Firstly congratulations to Jonathon & Sebastian Lundmark plus Oliver Certa for a beautiful and slick production. The film has some good interviews, social history and great cinematography etc. It is a truly remarkable piece of work for a first time feature. I particularly enjoyed seeing some timely reminders of why we all love this place. Yet I left the screening with a few nagging questions in the back of my mind. Is this really a documentary or a tourism marketing tool? Are there aspects of life in Byron Bay that were simply ignored or at the very least glossed over? What exactly are the motives behind this film? There is no denying that Byron Bay ‘The Meeting Place’ is indeed a beautiful piece of work. It’s just that at times it’s a little confusing as to whether it is a documentary, a tourism marketing tool or just a beautiful representation of how the Lundmark brothers perceive life, In Byron Bay Today.  Byron Bay ‘The Meeting Place’ will be screening at the Byron Bay Community Centre on November 30^th. 

Movie review: The Cove

A friend of mine sent me the following response to The Cove. It made me more interested in seeing the movie, so even though it’s just a casual email, I thought I’d share…

Yeah, this movie sounds good. What’s it about again—Oh yeah! The mass slaughter of dolphins.

It was advertised as an eco-spy thriller and I’m a sucker for cover-ups. The movie was both heart-breaking and riveting. One of the principals in the movie was on hand to answer questions from the audience so the whole experience was even more informative than just the viewing.

I’m tempted to see it again tonight [in Santa Barbara, California] as one of the Cousteaus will be on hand and there is so much information to take in.

This movie is a consciousness raising exercise in how all of humanity relates to all life on this planet. It is also the redemption of a man most responsible for the Flipper TV series that pioneered the very lucrative SeaWorld type attractions seen all around the world.

Ric O’Berry spent ten years helping to develop this model before realizing the stress & suffering imposed on dolphins in captivity. He has spent the last 35 years making amends.

Swimming with dolphins can be a life transforming experience but should only be done in the wild where these magnificent creatures roam free.

Most of the dolphins rounded up each fall in Japan are killed for food but a few are captured and sold for over a hundred thousand dollars each for worldwide entertainment. This high priced racket has many analogies to the drug trade including political protection and media blackouts. Most Japanese and people around the world don’t know this is happening and that’s why this movie is so important.

Of course, the mass slaughter of dolphins is a reminder of our own treatment of those many life forms that we ingest in such numbers. It is a real crime that the government subsidizes the corporate model of food production so that fewer and larger players monopolize this essential life sustaining process which gives rise to the fast food culture that so undermines our health.

In addition this movie illustrates the cost to our humanity. The Japanese word for whale is the same as dolphin, so this allows food processors to sneak much of their dolphin meat past unsuspecting Japanese consumers. Two council members were able to shutdown an effort to put dolphin meat into a school lunch program. They were moved to protect their own children from the growing threat of Mercury contamination. This is a growing threat that stalks the Japanese and all life on this planet including the dolphins themselves.

A highlight of the movie was Ric himself walking into a meeting of the IWC with the video of boats full of fisherman repeatedly stabbing dolphins trapped in nets with long spears all the while hearing the sounds of the screeching dolphins swimming in a sea of rich red blood. This sickening spectacle contradicted the Japanese representative’s effort to describe how humane this dolphin killing ritual had become.

–Guy.

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