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                                         Blackfish Blog
    The documentary Blackfish by director Gabriela Cowperthwaite deals with the killer whale attacks in the famous amusement park, SeaWorld. While watching this film, I found myself feeling bad for the whales and understanding why they did what they did, meaning the attacks. Whales are enormous creatures, they need space to swim. Granted the tank they were put in was the biggest tank I have ever seen, the whales need open water to swim. The scene that impacted me the most was the scene where the mother whale gave birth to her offspring and then the crew took away the baby from the mother. The mother whale was screaming just like a human would if their child were to be taken away from them. The whales can feel emotions like humans do. Earlier in the film, the researchers took an MRI of a whale's skull looking at the brain and made the discovery that whales have an extra part of their brain that allows them to feel emotions. This fact just made the scene even worse because viewers could tell the whale was very upset when they took away her baby. The whale would scream in distress and for days to come, she would just float in the corner, not wanting to have any part in anything, similar to a human during depression. The trainers of these killer whales seemed to have a serious emotional connection with these animals, so it was not like the whales were being emotionally neglected. The whales were just not happy with being incarcerated in a pool away from their original pack.
    At one point during the film, I became very angry with SeaWorld, one specific point. The point where I found out that the trainers were not notified of all the attacks by the killer whales on the trainers. SeaWorld just sent them in the water with no background information about these animals other than the fact that they will get paid for their services. This country is so motivated by money that a multi-million dollar company would send human life in the water with a potentially deadly animal, just for an audience to be entertained.

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                                      Blackfish Reflection

    I watched the documentary Blackfish, directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, and my initial reaction was just utter disbelief. The fact that SeaWorld had known about what really happened to Dawn Brancheau but insisted that is was her fault she got attacked and there was no sign of aggression in the attack. The whale, Tilikum, had had a record for attacking and killing trainers. The fact that they keep Tilikum is surprising because he is unpredictable. Trainers should not be allowed in the water with these whales and the court decision coming out of Dawn's case, supports my theory and now trainers are not allowed in the water with the whales. I was shocked and even angry after watching this film because I learned a lot about how the whales feel about being held captive at SeaWorld. The whales show signs of frustration and sometimes aggression because they cannot move freely like a wild animal is used to. Every once in awhile, the whales lash out with frustration and attack the trainers. I learned that there were almost eighty accounts of killer whales attacking trainers while in captivity, some of them leading to the death of the trainer, yet very few, if any accounts of attacking people in the wild. Even more shocking, the trainers in the film were not notified about the previous attacks by the whales before they got into the water with them. This is negligence on part of SeaWorld, letting the trainers go into the water with dangerous animals without telling them about their previous signs of aggression. After watching this film, I am against holding killer whales in captivity. Tilikum showed signs of frustration and aggression and should serve as a learning curve for us in realizing that killer whales are majestic, beautiful, and powerful animals that should not held in captivity, but thrives in the wild.

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                              Making A Murderer Music Influence

    There is no question, music does have an influence on emotions. When we are sad, we usually play sad music, when we are happy, we usually play happy music. It is so common that we do that that we do not always recognize when music influences us in other situations. In the Netflix original series, Making A Murderer, the background music can influence the audience to change their opinions about Mr. Avery. At first, when the story was talking about all of the past crimes Mr. Avery had committed, the music was dark and had the viewers rooting against him. However, later on in the episode where we start to learn more of the facts about the crimes, we start to feel bad for Mr. Avery and the music lightens up. The producers use music to engage our sense of hearing to alter our perceptions about Mr. Avery. They do this to make us feel like we have a connection with Mr. Avery even though most of us have not personally met him. It is for this reason that people return to the show and continue to watch it.

                                 Making A Murderer Reflection
     The story about Steven Avery is a shocking display of corruption in the justice system. The Manitowoc County Police Department showed many aspects of corruption. Avery was suspected and convicted of violently raping a woman. I found that it was shocking that the police did not investigate Gregory Allen for this crime even though he had a history of violence and sexual assault and was in the Manitowoc County area. Manitowoc County detective Thomas Bergner told Manitowoc County Sheriff, Tom Kocourek, that he believe Gregory Allen was the perpetrator in this case, but the Sheriff did not believe the detective and continued to charge Avery with the crime even though he had a solid alibi. The Sheriff's Department seemed to have a grudge with Avery because of his past run ins with the law. The investigation was mainly driven off of emotions instead of actual evidence.
    It was relieving when Avery was released from prison because of new DNA evidence that concluded that the real assailant in this case was Gregory Allen from before. Evidence found, soon pointed that the Sheriff's Department must have known that Avery was innocent but continued prosecution against him. Avery never stopped fighting to prove his innocence during the 18 years he was incarcerated and it finally paid off.