Social Action Productions

Social Action is an action aimed to bring about local, national or global

social change. The need for social action media products in our society is
expected by society. If people feel strongly about an issue and want to
bring about change many would go straight to Facebook to inform and
educate the wider society to bring about change.

The two documentaries I chose to evaluate are called Blackfish and

Bowling of Columbine and my own documentary that I will also be
evaluating is called Powerful Talking.

The issue being discussed in the Blackfish documentary is the capture and
separation of orka calves from their mothers and their family pod group,
the sub standard treatment of the orka killer whales by SeaWorld and the
dangerous working environment that SeaWorld places trainers in. Gabriela
Cowperthwaite was an ordinary mother who took her child to SeaWorld.
She felt while watching the killer whale show she felt that the animals
were unhappy and that they lived in an unnatural environment. Following
her visit, she began her research into the SeaWorld killer whales and this
ultimately resulted in her making the Blackfish documentary. Her idea
was, not to degrade SeaWorld but to inform and educate on a national and
global scale of the type of lies these animals live in order to put on an
entertainment show.
The issues being raised in the Bowling for Columbine documentary are the
ease in which Americans can obtain guns and why the obvious mental
health issues of the gun men who massacred their fellow school pupils
were not recognized and dealt with to avoid this traumatic event. The idea
behind the making of this documentary was to make people aware of the
gun mans back story and highlight the need for better mental health care
to avoid a situation like this happening again. The film makers also wanted
to highlight the police approach to the massacre and how things could be
done better in the future.
My social action documentary is on Talking Therapies. Talking Therapies is
a friendly and approachable service that helps people with problems such
as anxiety, depression, stress and phobias. The documentary will show
how people are effected by mental health issues to the point where they
are unable to live a full and complete life and how talking through their
issues with a councilor or in a group forum can positively change their
mental attitude. He idea behind this documentary is to inform and
educate people by helping them to understand that people from all walks
of life often need help with their mental health issues and it will
demonstrate that if these issues are not dealt with they can often spiral
out of control and in the worst cases result in suicide.

The action in Blackfish is trying to raise awareness of the plight of the

SeaWorld orka whales and change the publics attitude of this type of
entertainment and therefore stop the capture of baby whales to be kept in
captivity.
The Columbine documentary is trying to change the American publics
attitude towards gun crime by making them aware of the dangerous link
between mental health issues and how easy it is for anyone to buy a gun
and kill.
The Powerful Talking documentary is aiming to demonstrate that there are
many levels of mental illness all of which is important and that help is
available. The action is trying to dispel negative attitudes towards mental
health issues, reeducate and raise awareness that sufferers are not alone
and a more enlightening life is achievable through professional help.

Gabriela Cowperthwaite believes that there is a need for this informative

documentary because she believes that these animals are being
mistreated and that trainers lives are endangered because of an
unnecessary offering of public entertainment.
Michael Moore clearly feels that there is a need to inform the American
and international public of the dangers of gun crime in a high school
environment to avoid any further similar atrocities.
I feel there is a need to raise the awareness of mental health issues and
how widespread they are in our society, and how if left unchecked it can
lead to life destroying outcomes. Mental health issues touch most peoples
lives at one time or another. My documentary aims to break down any
stigma surrounding it.

The people involved in the documentary were some of the trainers at

SeaWorld who were concerned about the SeaWorld practices, specialists
who were able to comment on normal orca behavior, their family patterns
and life spans and most importantly Cowperthwaite was able to track
down the person who captured and separated the first orka claves for
SeaWorld back in the 1970s.
In this documentary many of the Columbine students who were in school
on the day of the massacre were interviewed. Some parents of these
children were also interviewed along with experts who discussed the
approach of the police on the day.
In Powerful Talking I will interview and filming Tanieque Noel-George who
is the patient engagement and communications officer for Talking
Therapies.

The Blackfish documentary has had national and international exposure

and the film had been nominated for a BAFTA award.
Bowling for Columbine is mainly focused on how on gun crime effects the
American public but it also aims to warn other countries of the dangers.
Powerful talking is aimed at local people but it also aims to make people
aware that there is also a lot of help nationally.

Blackfish aims to raise awareness of the visitors to SeaWorld by informing

them of the realities of the lives of the orkas and hopefully to change the
attitudes within the SeaWorld corporation.
Bowling for Columbine aims to change the attitudes of American families
who buy their children guns to protect themselves and make them aware
of the possible dangers of doing this.
Powerful talking aims to raise awareness to inform local people that there
is a local friendly service available to them if they need to discuss
personal issues.

The Blackfish documentary is not dealing with stereotypes but it is

representing animals who have no human voice.
Bowling for Columbine documentary spoke on behalf of families of
students who died during the massacre and aimed to represent those who
felt that the police did not do enough to save their children.
Powerful talking aims to change to stigmas surrounding mental health and
to represent people who are suffering with mental health issues and feel
alone during this time.

Blackfish aims to unite people in their feeling that the exploitation of orka
whales is wrong. Columbine aims to unite the American public to change
their gun laws.
Powerful Talking aims to strengthen the local community by informing
them of local mental health professionals who are there to assist them.

Blackfish aims to provide information so individuals can make up their

own minds not to attend entertainment of this sort.
Bowling for Columbine aims to provide information on the events of the
massacre day in order to change gun laws police process.
Powerful Thinking aims to provide information to make it clear how to use
he talking therapies service.

Blackfish is an informative documentary not a campaign, Columbine is an

informative documentary not a campaign, Powerful Talking is an
informative documentary not a campaign.

Blackfish has built relationships with SeaWorld trainers which has made
them more confident to publically disagree with SeaWorld codes of
practice.
In Bowling for Columbine relationships were built with the families of
injured and murdered children.
Powerful Talking aims to inform rather than build relationships with.

The Blackfish film has impacted greatly on the American public and has
been nominated for a BAFTA award and has therefore been far reaching
throughout the United States and globally. Since the Blackfish film
SeaWorld has announced that the whales currently in there care will be
the last generation of orkas. They say that society is changing and they
are changing with it, finding new ways to deliver entertainment to their
guests whilst talking action to protect wild animals and wild places.
Since the Columbine massacre the police force has changed their
approach to situations like this and now send specially trained officers into
a building where a gun man is attacking rather than waiting on the
outside as they did at the Columbine shooting.
Powerful Talking hopes to have a positive impact on local people who are
suffering with mental health issues and by raising awareness hopes to
break down mental health sitgmas.

Throughout the Blackfish documentary the technique that had the

greatest impact was the use of real footage and was therefore the best
technique.
The technique that had the greatest impact in the Bowling for Columbine
was also the use of real footage and was therefore the best technique.
Powerful Talking the greatest impact is going to be my interview with
Tanieque Noel-George who will inform me of the worrying statistics around
mental health issues.

The Blackfish documentary is extremely effective and testimony to this is

its BAFTA nomination and the change in SeaWorld policies and their
SeaWorld trainers.
Bowling for Columbine has been very effective and instrumental in
changing police policies. Powerful Talking is an effective way of informing
the local communities of the many ways that Talking Therapies can help
and exactly how to contact them. It will be an efficient way of informing
people who may be suffering with low self confidence that this
organization is kind and approachable.

The Blackfish documentary interviews two men who took part in the
original capture of the orka calves, the described in detail how the claves
and their mothers screamed to each other and they talked about the
shame attached to what they had done. One said that he had since
worked in many war zones and had witnessed and done some terrible
things but the capture of the baby orkas remained with him as being the
worst thing he had done in his life. This was extremely emotional to watch
and listen to.
The real footage in the Columbine documentary was so emotional to
watch as it was easy to imagine the trauma the families went through and
the sheer terror that the students must have felt and this footage was the
most emotional and effective way of telling the story.
In Powerful Talking it can be very sad and emotional to hear how many
ordinary people suffer in silence. The statistics that Tanieque Noel-George
will share alarming and very sad.