BLACKFISH Rides Wave of Controversy on Opening Night at Sarasota Film Festival

Hailed by critics, feared by theme-park officials, Magnolia's BLACKFISH is a "full-on takedown of a broken system" according to Indiewire. It delivers a "damning condemnation" of SeaWorld practices that led to the deaths of several seasoned trainers and exposes the mistreatment resulting in the violent atypical behavior of Orcas (killer whales) in captivity.

BLACKFISH is Sarasota Film Festival's Opening Night Film. It will be shown Friday April 5th at 7:00 PM at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS NOW.

Animal activists including Voice of the Orca (representatives will be attending) and PETA have labored extensively to shine a light on what they call SeaWorld's "dismissive stance" on the deaths caused by Tilikum the Orca and to reveal the truth. The SFF will bring you not only this hard-hitting film, but also the film's director Gabriela Cowperthwaite and several of the film's subjects, former SeaWorld trainers who have blown the whistle on what they saw and experienced.

Director Cowperthwaite has said, "I was a mom that took her kids to SeaWorld," and that her entry point was a human death which several parents witnessed. She then devoted herself to "pulling back the curtain" on the death of 17-year SeaWorld veteran (and head trainer) Dawn Brancheau.

"Had Dawn not been killed, we wouldn't be having this discussion," Cowperthwaite added."The general public needs to feel like it has skin in the game to really care... One of the most important lines in the film is that 50 years from now we'll realize how barbaric a time this was."

The Sarasota Film Festival invites you to be a part of this important conversation by seeing BLACKFISH this Friday.