Lolita: Slave to Entertainment

Director's Statement

I now know more about orcas now than I could have ever imagined, yet there is so much more to them than I could ever comprehend. The orcas' massive brain size and built-in sonar systems alone make them incredibly complex. The pods have an amazing social structure with family trees that can be traced back for generations and studied for generations to come. These families actually stay together for life. They travel together, hunt together, play together, and rest together. We can learn so much from these animals, not by watching them do ridiculous circus tricks, but by watching them in the wild.

Will I be any worse off for having never seen a grizzly bear ride a unicycle, or for having never seen a polar bear up close and personal?

In truth these theme parks have very little understanding of orcas. Sure they know how to keep them alive in a pool and they know how to train them to perform for food. But that is about the extent of it. They are completely untrained in the nuances of wild orca behavior, having never studied the families in the wild. Parks are notorious for putting incompatible cetaceans (transient whales and residents whales) together in a single tank in hopes of breeding them only to have it turn out in disaster. On one occasion two adult females battled to death over an infant in a tank before a crowd of horrified spectators. Park veterinarians use anti-depressants and Maalox to pacify these beautiful animals that are used to swimming hundreds of miles a day.

The parks claim to educate us and teach us respect for nature, the very same parks that kidnap infant orcas and buy and sell them for millions of dollars a piece. They treat them as property for their own profit and squeeze every penny they can out of the animal until it dies of exhaustion, depression, ulcers, or in a fight. Then they simply go out and get another one.

It is important to arm ourselves with truth, to break free from the corporate trance, to think for ourselves and adopt honest, ethical values. This film was made for Lolita and all the others who have suffered and died to be put on display for human gain, for those who have endured lives full of misery and loneliness to help the fat cats wallets grow. It is for the victims who serve to teach our children that dominance and abuse are perfectly acceptable. I made a promise to Lolita and this film is just the beginning.