A fenntartható halászat valódi arca

At Gamechanger level. Even though some of the information may be slightly out of context and not entirely accurate, it's still a damn sad statement of what's going on around us even if you subtract the 20 percent "seriousness" of the fact that not everyone is fishing in monster numbers and not every company is lying and cheating. But it's still thematically strong and in many ways shocking, the dark side of what's being done to feed humanity and, more importantly, to make money. (2021.04.18)

Seaspiracy brings up a lot of facts and information I didn't know before. The interviews where the spokespeople for the organizations that have taken it upon themselves to protect the ocean fail on simple questions are so comical it beggars belief. The documentary has made me take another look at sustainability and I believe it will, in part, influence my thinking on the subject. I believe the filming was often very emotional for Ali, but personally I would have cut out his fictionalized emotions that seemed unnatural. After all, he's not an actor, so why go into scenes where he's staring trembling at the ocean? I also don't like how the documentary underestimates the viewer and the way it presents information. For the most part, people who are interested in this issue or ecology will watch the documentary anyway. And such people usually already know the basic information, so I find the dramatic tone unnecessary. I’m not sure whether the film isn’t too one-note from the very beginning to attract and convince people who don't care about the future of the planet. I see a lot more potential to engage a wider audience in David Attenborough's A Life on Our Planet, which doesn't push the envelope as much, has a much more enjoyable narrative, and offers the viewer beautiful nature shots alongside the scary predictions. Which, in my opinion, awakens a desire to hold on to the beauty. But maybe that's just me. As for the dolphins, I definitely recommend the decade-old documentary The Cove, where Ric O'Barry (who also appears in this documentary) goes on a quest to save them in Taiji, Japan. That one offers equally (maybe even more) shocking content, but I liked the format a lot better. Still, I'm rooting for Ali and the other makers of this documentary, and I'm grateful that there are people like this who won't let the future of the ocean rest. (2021.05.16)

The Cove 2/Blackfish 2. Just a lot more (but like really more) manipulative, misleading, drowning in trumped up conspiracies, and childishly ridiculously naive in the way it conveys serious information that it is unquestionably more than appropriate to address and call attention to. One of those agitprop documentaries where it is easy to confuse the strength of the issue or message with the (lack of) qualities of the documentary itself. It bites into everything, with the theme and focus changing ten times during the course of the runtime. But nothing ever gets done, nothing ever gets said, and it never gets beyond the well-known (and already better covered by others) information. All amplified through an "investigative" dude who puts himself at the forefront of everything. If you think it's about "the dark side of fishing and the impact of ocean pollution", it is, but it's mostly about Ali Tabrizi, who styles himself in a role where he's all over (not only) Japan at every turn, repeatedly shocked by well-known things like "I risked my life to discover how dolphins and killer whales end up in parks, I used to love going there, now I don't go there anymore". Uhm. Like really? He needed to go "behind the veil of fishing and regulations" for that? It's a pity, because the themes he addresses are strong and important, but he does it in a way for the TikTok generation, in the style of a shot of himself in a dark corner of a night city, dramatically whispering to the camera how "he's in shock because he's been opening the fridge and drinking milk from a carton all his life, and now he's gone secretly with a camera to the family dairy, exclusively for you, with the devotion of his life, to find out how milk is made and how it gets into boxes, so he'll never drink milk again". The best possible proof that a worthy subject alone does not a good documentary make. (2021.03.25)

If you watch Seaspiracy in anticipation of a classic documentary that covers the whole topic, names the problems and offers solutions, you will be disappointed, because this is not that type of documentary, and I don't think that it should be. As well as its topic, it is about its narrator and director Ali Tabrizi and his insight, which is to motivate the audience to find their own insight. It is true that I imagine a captivating documentary differently and something was done purely for effect (the animated inserts, for example), but the power of many shots, the reason why they were created, and somehow my own conscience do not allow me to give the film a lower rating. P.S. Did you also feel that it was an absurd Borat scene when they were talking about the Dolphin Safe brand? (2021.04.13)