The newly-renovated Cinemapolis theater in downtown Ithaca continued its pattern of excellence last week when it premiered The Cove, winner of the 2009 Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. The Cove was only shown at two locations in New York State — and Ithaca, being the wonderful eco-friendly hippie-fest that it is, had local activists who conspired to premiere the film and to hold a follow-up discussion. You’ll all be sorry when you leave Ithaca, just you wait.

The Cove is directed by Louis Psihoyos of National Geographic fame, and tells the absolutely stunning story of a small Japanese fishing village called Taiji. Taiji, along with a few other Japanese towns, is one of the world’s largest suppliers of “domesticated” dolphins for attractions like Marineland and SeaWorld. But not everything is happy-go-lucky in Taiji — it is also a significant supplier of dolphin meat. Yes, I did just say dolphin meat.

Taiji traps hundreds of dolphins daily in a small, open cove and then lets dolphin trainers take their pick. This process is open for viewing by the public: cameras strictly prohibited. But then a small group of Japanese fisherman herd the remaining dolphins around the point to another cove, one entirely closed off from public view, and kill them all.

The film, of course, treads on thin ice here, as all such films do. Why dolphins? If we eat salmon, why not eat dolphins? If we save dolphins, why not save the Comal Springs Beetle? (Comal Springs Beetles are in danger of extinction, you know.) It’s up to you to decide whom to save, I guess, but I’m almost positive that if you go to see The Cove, you will leave wanting to save dolphins. It is a powerful film.

The film features the original dolphin trainer — Richard O’Barry, the man behind Flipper. O’Barry worked in the dolphin entertainment industry for ten years until he began to realize that his captive dolphins (five of whom together made up Flipper) weren’t happy. He switched sides, and has battled the last 30 years for dolphin rights (if you will), racking up arrests for freeing captive dolphins. O’Barry has spent the last several years in Taiji, trying to expose the massive dolphin slaughter that takes place there every year, and trying not to get arrested on bogus charges by the fishing companies.

The film starts off like a heist movie (think Ocean’s 11) with the gathering of a team for infiltrating the cove, which is constantly guarded, protected by barbed wire, watched via surveillance camera and protected by a number of intimidating Japanese men who will stand two inches from your face until you go away. The team, led by Barry and Psihoyos, recruit husband and wife free-diving team Mandy Cruickshank and Kirk Kranck, Canadian military veteran Simon Hutchins, marine techie Charles Hambleton, camerman Brook Atkin and producer Joseph Chisolm. They then “clandestinely” fly 40 bags worth of camera and spy equipment to Taiji. They’re tailed starting the minute they get there. The name’s Bond. Dolphin Bond. (Fun fact: the movie also features an approximately three-second clip of Hayden Pannetiere, who was a member of a small group of holistic surfers who staged a wildly unsuccessful peaceful protest at the cove, and is also known to use her fame to campaign for dolphin rights as her primary cause).

The cinematography for this first part of the movie is also reminiscent of spy movies, complete with nighttime missions to the cove to plant cameras, filmed with thermal imagers. These moments are actually tangibly suspenseful, and often funny. It humanizes the people involved, and really makes you want to believe in them. By the time you realize you’re really enjoying the film and the “actors,” the humor is gone, replaced by a grim reality.

The last ten or 15 minutes of the film, including footage from the team’s hidden cameras, are incredibly weighty, and quite literally awe-inspiring, though not in a good way. I challenge you to watch it and not be sad, not feel ashamed, not want to help. The Japanese fisherman have the complete backing of their government, though they operate in secret, where international protective bodies have no teeth. Psihoyos and O’Barry are trying to give them this edge — through exposure — so, see the film. Just get in the know. Check out www.thecovemovie.com for more info, and ways to get involved. (And see the film!)