The Cove

[CJ (Shige) Suzuki]

More on the Cove (fyi):

Nico Nico Doga plans to stream 'Cove' for free
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20100617x3.html

The page for the streaming:
http://live.nicovideo.jp/gate/lv19057911?top_live

The streaming is over, but another related online event
http://info.nicovideo.jp/cove/

--- CJ Suzuki

On Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 11:25 PM, Christine Marran <marran at umn.edu> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> During the Q & A following the screening, though, O'Barry had a very
>> different tone. As I recall, he didn't say much of anything about the film's
>> animal rights appeal, he didn't try to elaborate or reinforce it, and one
>> might say that he even seemed to distance himself from it. Instead, he
>> hammered on the mercury problem and its global dimensions. For O'Barry,
>> there was more or less a direct line from Minamata to Taiji, and he
>> emphasized that this was the real import of the film. He held up a recent
>> book on the Niigata Minamata disease by book by Saitô Hisashi that had just
>> been published last September:
>> <http://sites.google.com/site/niigataminamata/> (I haven't checked it, but
>> this might be one of the most recent significant works on the problem).
>> O'Barry's message to the assembled journalists was basically: "it's your job
>> to investigate this -- get going."
>
> Yes, Ric O'Barry had been moving away from "animal welfare" framing of the
> problem toward mercury poisoning years before the release of the film.  It
> is a good strategy because it ties into all sorts of global environmental
> issues as you suggest, Mark.
>>
>>
>> I can't say that I've taken an exhaustive look at the recent press
>> coverage, but in what I've seen it's striking that the focus is more on the
>> issue of cultural sensitivity than the rather more serious problem of rising
>> mercury levels in the global food supply.
>
> I agree.  It is my sense that this phenomenon of attention to cultural
> difference over  environmental practice can occur for any number of reasons
> but a couple might be that (a) the press seeks a readership and develops the
> easiest route toward "controversy" and (b) it is a strategy for groups to
> protect local controversial practices (such as live pigeon shooting in the
> US and bullfighting).
>
> -cm
>
>
> --
> Christine L. Marran
> Associate Professor of Japanese Literature and Cultural Studies
> Department of Asian Languages and Literatures
> University of Minnesota
>
>
>