The Dolphin Dealer + "Blowdown": Rocket Tower

The Dolphin Dealer
Canada 2008. Director: Brad Quenville

PRODUCER LEIGH BADGLEY IN PERSON |  Produced by Vancouver’s Omni Film, this provocative documentary explores the lucrative international trade in wild dolphins. The capture and trafficking of these creatures is a subject of much ethical controversy. The film profiles Canadian Christopher Porter, a former Vancouver Aquarium trainer now based in the Solomon Islands, where he exports dolphins for $100,000 a head to marine parks around the world. His opponents include, notably, Ric O’Barry, an animal rights activist who is the former trainer of television’s Flipper. "There are no real heroes or villains here, just people on two very opposing sides of the dolphins-in-captivity debate," says director Brad Quenville. "We’ve tried to make a balanced film." Colour, Digibeta video. 44 mins. 

"Blowdown": Rocket Tower
Canada 2008. Director: Ian Herring

A family demolition team from Phoenix, Maryland descends on Cape Canaveral, Florida to take down an obsolete rocket launch tower in this documentary made for Blowdown, a National Geographic series produced by Vancouver’s Parallax Films. The tower was once the world’s largest moving structure. The team has one month to do the job.  Rigging up highly specialized, high-speed explosives capable of cutting through steel, they struggle to keep the job on schedule and the team safe. Colour, Digibeta video. 50 mins.