Staying with friends at their condo in Sarasota – typical set-up: in a gated community, very quiet and secure! Built on a golf course. About half-hour from downtown. A reminder: We are in car-country: can’t go anywhere (outside the gated area) without it – that is why, we are told and I believe it, retirees, even incapacitated ones, hang to their driver licenses like a life-line: lose it and you lose your autonomy!
Driven around: part of the Siesta Key (exclusive, pricey real estate – Kim knows all about it, having had a number of properties around Sarasota, before the market collapsed in 2008-9 – and rather exposed to water flooding I would expect – although no history of floods!), down to Venice, probably a typical Florida coastal town! Named because of the abundance of waterways around; started as a retiree place by some union, towards the end of 19th century; a “hot” place of “villegiature” during the roaring 20’s; then the Depression! Revived with the military and WWII! Had lunch at an Italian restaurant (decent, a rather good risotto, I am told by the ladies!), along the main drag, after a short visit to the beach (overcast, so rather cool!)
We attended the opening of this year’s (15th anniversary) Sarasota Film Festival. Major local event; at the huge Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall (all color-coordinated, inside and outside – as long as it is purple!) ”Blackfish” (see the LA Times' article at the bottom here) is the opening-night film, about the fate of captive orca (“killer”) whales at sea parks (one – SeaWorld – at Orlando, a couple of hours away from here) and their human trainers (several of whom ended up being killed or maimed, notably by the frustrated Tilikum, a male whale, over the years).” Blackfish”, after the name indigenous nations gave to orcas. A rather controversial film (and selection!) made (director Gabriela Cowperthwaite in attendance) of interviews with former (whistle blowers) whale trainers and marine experts, telling how distorted the “party-line” is about orcas, their life, and the “accidents”…shot at various locations – notably in Florida – with very poignant footage (for instant about the SeaLand Park in Victoria, B.C., which closed in the 90’s after a terrible “accident”!) An eye-opener on this “not-so-exciting” world! Will be seen – and probably justifiably – as a condemnation of sea park operators, for their “inhuman” treatment of animals, and for “hiding the truth” about the killings (we are reminded that operating company SeaWorld refused to be interviewed for the film, which incidentally will be shown soon in “a theatre near you” this summer, thanks to Magnolia Pictures which has acquired the distribution rights…). Can’t escape thinking of Audiard’s latest drama film “De rouille et d’os” (“Rust and Bone” in English),seen at TIFF last year, about a whale trainer and show master in some MarineLand in the South of France, played by Marion Cotillard (of “la Vie en Rose”/Edith Piaf fame!), who is maimed (she loses her legs) by a “killer” whale!
Light dinner at “Le Café Europe” (see my notes on Tripadvisor) on the famed “St-Armand’s Circle” downtown Sarasota.
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We spent some time (of course!) on Siesta Key Beach, known as one of the most beautiful beaches anywhere in the world. (“World’s Finest, Whitest Sand” if you go by the local Chamber of Commerce’s logo – this is based on the "Great International White Sand Beach Challenge" held in 1987, where it beat some 30 other entrants from around the globe – “including from the Bahamas and Grand Cayman”, we are reminded). The sand is made of pulverized quartz (99% of the sand, according to some geological studies! It’s very fine, like icing powder), carried apparently from the Appalachian Mountains by rivers into the Gulf of Mexico over millions of years – it’s old! It has the characteristic that, even under the burning subtropical sun, it remains cool to the touch (it is that “reflective”!) It has been classified (by Condé Nast Traveler Magazine for instance) as the “best of the best Sand” beach, and recognized as #1 beach in the USA “for cleanness, water quality and safety”! It’s Saturday morning, sunny and unusually dry, lots of people – locals and tourists – enjoying the beach – it is huge and does not look too crowded, especially where we are sitting, towards the northern part!
Lunched on oysters and NZ Sauvignon Blanc in the nearby village, at the Siesta Key Oyster Bar, better known as “SKOB”, an institution apparently around here!
Dinner that night – after a few glasses of wine at Shore, while the ladies are shopping nearby, back at the famous St-Armand’s Circle! – at one of Kim’s (and Chris’s I suppose) favorite restaurants, Indigenous, where we enjoyed sitting on the veranda, having seafood, “bien arrosé” with a Puligny-Montrachet!
Breakfast at quintessential breakfast place Millie's Café - Kim's treat - before leaving for “St-Pete” (after a shopping stop at the Ellenton Premium Outlets - the Cole Haan shoes story! - nearby on the way!)
Sarasota, April 7, 2013
Sarasota, April 7, 2013
LA Times article:
'Blackfish' has SeaWorld in hot water
The documentary claims that the marine park has made deadly errors with regards to its orca trainers, allegations that the company is disputing.
January 25, 2013
By Amy Kaufman, Los Angeles Times
PARK CITY, Utah — It was Samantha Berg's dream job: swimming with orcas.
But with only a bachelor's degree in animal science from Cornell University and no hands-on experience with whales, the then-22-year-old assumed she was not qualified to perform stunts in a SeaWorld pool with the powerful 8,000-pound animals.
Still, she decided to send her résumé to marine parks nationwide in the hopes that she might land a low-level gig and learn more about sea life. To her surprise, she was called in for an audition at SeaWorld's Orlando park, which asked her to prove her physical acumen by diving 25 feet underwater, picking up a weight, returning to the surface, carrying heavy fish buckets and then jumping up on stage even as she was struggling for breath.
"They're seeing if you're physically fit and if you look good in a wetsuit," she said.
She got the job in 1990, earning $7.50 an hour. But things at SeaWorld were not exactly as she had fantasized.
Berg, now 44, is one of eight former park employees who appear in "Blackfish," a documentary that received a strong reception when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last month and was quickly acquired by Magnolia Pictures and CNN Films. Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, the movie examines whales in captivity and one in particular, Tilikum — an orca that has killed three people, including veteran SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau in 2010.
The film, which will hit theaters this summer and debut on CNN later in the year, explores the psychology of Tilikum, who was born in the wild near Iceland in 1983, captured and sent to a marine park near Vancouver before coming to SeaWorld in Orlando. Separated from his family, he was bullied by other whales as a calf in captivity. Older female whales raked his skin constantly, and Tilikum ("friend" in Chinook) was kept in a small, dark tank for more than 14 hours at a time — factors the movie suggests may have contributed to his aggression later.
SeaWorld is already challenging the film. In a statement, the company said that based on a "very preliminary review" of "Blackfish," the movie "appears to repeat the same unfounded allegations made many times over the last several years by animal-rights activists."
"Importantly, the film fails to make the most important point about SeaWorld," the company said. "The company is dedicated in every respect to the safety of our staff and the welfare of animals."
Before "Blackfish," Cowperthwaite, 41, had made one documentary, about urban lacrosse, and knew little about orcas before learning of Brancheau's death in Florida. At the time, SeaWorld said the whale may have mistaken the 40-year-old trainer's ponytail for a toy.
The murky details of the incident confused Cowperthwaite, who had brought her children to the company's San Diego park. Clamoring for more information, she came across "The Killer in the Pool," a 2010 Outside magazine article about the incident written by Tim Zimmermann. The journalist had already spoken to a handful of former park trainers, and Cowperthwaite asked him to come on board as an associate producer to help her make a film about the topic.
"The trainers spoke in a way that was tangible to me," said the filmmaker, sitting beside Berg in Park City recently. "They were like my apostles. I got being 20 and wanting to take a fun job. They started out with that same bright-eyed approach to Sea World as I did."
But finding ex-employees willing to talk about their experiences at SeaWorld wasn't as easy as the filmmaker had anticipated. Once, she and her film crew flew to meet one man without even knowing his name, and after the group had set up their lights and were ready to begin filming, the subject backed out.
After Brancheau's death, Berg — who had left SeaWorld in the mid-1990s and is now an acupuncturist in Alaska — was sought after by the news media as a commentator. At first she defended the park's explanation but became more skeptical as the company cited trainer error as a factor in the death.
"I was shocked by it, but I was still buying into the party line," said Berg. "I was really deluded, and it's embarrassing for me to go back and look now at what I did."
Berg said she came to realize she told numerous things to park-goers that were not true — including that whales live longer in captivity than in the wild. (Orcas can live as long as 80 years in the wild, according to the Vancouver Aquarium.) When she was hired, she was also unaware of Tilikum's dangerous history or that orcas had injured dozens of trainers over the years.
Some of the most striking footage in "Blackfish" shows trainers being harmed in graphic detail in home videos shot by park attendees. Through a Freedom of Information Act request, Cowperthwaite was able to obtain these as the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration sued SeaWorld after Brancheau's death.
In May 2012, a Florida judge ruled that SeaWorld killer whale trainers can no longer get into the water with orcas and must be protected by physical barriers. SeaWorld is appealing. Still, the park doesn't seem to be hurting much: In 2011, attendance at its three locations rose 5.2% to 12.1 million, from 11.5 million in 2010, according to the Themed Entertainment Assn.'s global attractions attendance report.
But other animal activists believe "Blackfish" may reduce attendance at SeaWorld. Louie Psihoyos, the director of the Oscar-winning 2009 documentary "The Cove," said that if his movie about dolphin slaughter in Japan "gave these guys a black eye, hopefully this will be a knockout punch to SeaWorld."
Cowperthwaite and Berg hope that SeaWorld will eliminate its orca shows and replace them with more educational exhibits, such as facilities where sick whales are rehabilitated for eventual release. Another option, they say, is for the company to keep whales in a sea pen — a cordoned-off portion of the ocean where whales can still feel the natural rhythms of the ocean but are not confined to a tank.
"Whales are special because you feel that they recognize you, and that small moment throttles you," said the director. "But we have to be comfortable with the fact that whales may not love us back in that way. I was a mom who took her kids to SeaWorld, lured by the iconic image of Shamu, and didn't feel quite right about it and didn't know why. I hope people who see this and still go to the park are at least making an active decision — throwing down that 100 bucks and knowing the truth — not making a passive decision like I was."
amy.kaufman@latimes.com
