Whale and the Raven: Documentary Film Review

Review of Whale and the Raven documentary film, written in an essay style.

Introduction

The Whale and the Raven is a documentary film shot in the oceans of British Columbia (BC) in Canada, where the director shows the efforts of a community and researchers to protect the habitat, which is home to a thriving community of whales. The habitat of the whales faces a risk of destruction as a major oil company plans to use that place as a transit route for tankers to export gas.

The key themes presented in the documentary film include research work by the two researchers who have spent years studying how whales live in that area, commercialization plan as proposed by the energy company, and efforts by the local community to save the habitat.

Body Paragraphs

Filmmaker Miriam Leuze makes good use of drones and cameras to capture the sights of the whales and the rich textures of the oceans of BC; the background sound provided by the whales further enhances the overall experience of watching the film. The film is interspersed with stories of people and the communities, and expert comments from the researchers; there is even an animation film shown halfway through, which is artist Roy Henry Vickers own version of the story. All these things help effectively communicate the message of the film.

Researchers Janie Wray and Hermann Meuter have been studying the lives of whales for around 15 years in the remote territories of the Gitga’at nation and have collected sufficient data that indicate how whales are using the habitat. Impressed by their efforts, the local community take the two researchers in the Raven and the Blackfish clan. These local clans have been fighting against the oil industry who are keen to use this region as a transit route to export gas. For all these years, the community of whales have been using the habitat without the fear of losing out to something; however, the researchers feel that the gas route plan will be devastating for the habitat of the whales . As a result, the two researchers decide to align their research work with the objectives of the local environmental monitoring groups of the Gitga’at Guardians. While the film does show the concern of the local community about the impact to their oceans due to the proposed gas route, the film not really offer solutions on how to address the global problem of climate change, reducing noise pollution in the ocean and coastlines.

The data collected by the researchers reveal that if a habitat is conserved and nurtured, it can become a thriving place for wildlife, and also allow humans to understand a lot about wildlife. Researcher Manie Wray says that the whole area, which is now home to several whales, is one big bowl of whale food. Because of their several years of research, the researchers understand a lot about the whales, and are really worried about the impact of the new gas route. The impact of noise from the tankers on whales and the fact that a tanker could hit one of those whales make them fear.

The film also shows that corporations will continue to exert pressure on the environment for business benefits, and it’s important for the local communities to come together and oppose any moves that may be excessively detrimental to the environment. In one of the scenes, people from Douglas Channel Watch (Environmental NGO Kitimat) say that there is pressure from above (referring to politicians and businesspersons) for the project. In another scene, you see one the NGO workers (say no to tankers) saying that people who have no connection with the land usually taking decision about the land, which indicates that most of these commercial projects usually do not undertake thorough research of the impact that the project could have on the environment.

Concluding Remarks

Towards the end of the film, director Mirjam Lueze poses the question that self-awareness, compassion, and thinking does not have to be exclusively human affairs. The researchers, through their years of research of whales, have started to realize that most of these qualities applied to whales as well, and its quite possible that other animals may exhibit these traits. However, it seems that humans are not yet ready to acknowledge that, or are not yet ready to give as much importance to wildlife. Probably that is one of the reasons why so much degradation of over environment has taken place over the years, and perhaps, it is time for humans to have a rethink and have more dialogue among themselves.

Meanwhile, people who are concerned about environment conservation, should continue to work closely with NGOs and local communities in order to strengthen their fight against mindless commercialization, which usually has the backing of the more powerful people and could easily overlook the massive damage that it could pose to the ecology.

References

Mirjam Lueze. “The whale and the Raven film.” NFB, 2018.

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