Documentary Review: Seaspiracy

Documentary Review: Seaspiracy For Parents- Parents need to know that Seaspiracy is a stunning documentary about the harm of commercial fishing practices. Lots of violence to animals and animal harm is shown. We see blood, gore, and the live killing of many sea creatures like dolphins, whales, sea turtles, shrimp, sharks, and other fish, like salmon. Animated recreations of human murder; we see a woman being shot in the head, blood shown. More scenes of abuse, dead bodies floating in water, dead bodies in freezers. Real scenes captured of enslaved people crying out for help, interviews with former enslaved workers. The claims in the film are shocking and involve the filmmaker's attempt to uncover fraud and corruption on a huge scale, backed with evidence from journalists, authors, marine biologists, oceanographers, frontline activists, and industry insiders. An incredible indictment of many governments, organizations, groups, industries, companies, brands, fisheries, and commercial fishing practices, this film will likely change the world and inspire young activists. WHAT'S THE STORY? In SEASPIRACY, filmmaker Ali Tabrizi sets out to make a nature documentary about dolphins. Instead, he ends up tracing and uncovering the world-ending costs of the commercial fishing industry. Tabrizi puts himself in danger by using hidden cameras to film dangerous locations around the world that harbor, protect, and maintain illegal fishing markets, like the dolphin and shark markets. His journey finds him uncovering a deeper and more connected system of fraud, corruption, money, and government cooperation. iS IT ANY GOOD? A devastating indictment of commercial fishing, this whistleblower documentary is stunning, tragic, emotional, and difficult to watch. Seaspiracy uncovers and reveals tons of information about how and why the commercial fishing industry is killing the planet, ourselves, and our future. If stomaching the animal harm, violence, gore, and killing is possible, this film should be a critical if not absolutely necessary watch. It’s a lot to stomach, and part of the point is surely to not sugarcoat the actual brutality of what goes on. Lots of companies, organizations, and governments being "in on it" is also incredibly alarming. Full of stunning revelations, this film is tough but necessary viewing. For one, it greatly helps put better perspective on what is actually harming our oceans. And it isn't plastic. Well, it is, but more so, commercial fishing is the problem. The fishing industry work collectively to hide these problems, and they control the messaging. The filmmaker also puts himself into the narrative, for better and for worse. He’s there to humanely hold the viewer's hands through this alarming predicament. Without Tabrizi's or any human perspective to witness all this with, the film might have been too much to stomach: simply being bombarded with sad, tragic, and horrible fact after fact, image after image. Nevertheless, this documentary is packed with conventional examples, testimonies, evidence, interviews with scientists, researchers, activists, journalists, and other whistleblowers. Teens and families who are passionate about saving the environment will have much to discuss and reflect upon.