“The Cove” made a major splash upon its 2009 release. The animal rights documentary won an Academy Award, took in over a million dollars at the box office, and sparked an international controversy. The doc followed activists’ efforts to end whale and dolphin hunting in Taiji, Japan. But what happened next? A new trailer has dropped for “A Whale of a Tale,” a documentary exploring the effects of “The Cove” on Taiji, a sleepy fishing village with a population of 3,000 that became known around the world.
Revealing “the complex story behind the ongoing debate, “A Whale of a Tale” includes “a wide range of characters including local fishermen, international activists, and an American journalist (and long time Japanese resident),” according to its official synopsis. The doc “unearths a deep divide in eastern and western thought about nature and wildlife and cultural sensitivity in the face of global activism.”
“Just because something’s been done for a long, long time, doesn’t make it right,” one character says of Taiji’s long-standing hunting practices. Another asks, “Is it our role as Americans to be putting our standards on the rest of the world?” We also hear the perspective of a local who emphasizes that “it’s wrong for outsiders to come and try to destroy our culture.”
Directed by Megumi Sasaki (“Herb & Dorothy”), “A Whale of a Tale” opens August 17 in New York with a national release to follow.
