“Blackfish” Snubbed -- Outrage Ensues; The Dodo, 1/16/14

Melissa Cronin, The Dodo; “Blackfish” Snubbed -- Outrage Ensues: "Some of the most surprising snubs in the category in recent years have been “Gimme Shelter” (1970), Errol Morris’ “The Thin Blue Line” (1988), Moore’s “Roger & Me” (1989), Werner Herzog’s “Grizzly Man” (2005), “Last Train Home” (2010) and Herzog’s “Cave of Forgotten Dreams” (2010). As John Anderson writes at the New York Times, the panel of documentarians that votes on the category “tends to favor inspiring stories about struggle and triumph, not examinations of darker subjects with ambiguous conclusions.” The film, directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival last January, and was picked up by CNN for a wider release. The plot revolves around the 2010 death of trainer Dawn Brancheau, who was killed when an orca whale with a history of violence dragged her by her ponytail and she drowned. The issue of orcas in captivity is at the heart of the film -- a practice which it comes out as strongly against."