A Fall From Freedom
That’s the name of the docu-movie I caught during the weekend at Sinema Old School on top of Mt. Sophia. The place is located in between Plaza Singapura and Grand Cathay, and tbh I never knew it even existed! So we climbed about a thousand steps up this “mount” and found our way to this curious new place.
Initially I was kinda concerned that we might be watching this docu-movie outdoors (my greatest fear) cos everywhere looked kinda super old school (guess i should have inferred from the name) and cui. Hahaha my main worry was that I would spend the next two hours sweating my ass off and that was something I was rather keen to avoid. Luckily for me, the screening was held indoors, and was really comfy actually, with couches spread all over an elevated auditorium, which really made it quite a pleasurable experience.
Okay, so the docu-movie! I kinda like this word haha it sounds intellectual o.o It was about the captive state of marine mammals like dolphins and whales, and how mankind has effectively imprisoned these highly intellectual creatures in makeshift environments detrimental to their well being and development. The entire screening was quite moving, and when you witness the slaughter of thousands of dolphins/ whales, you start wondering if the entire entertainment industry based on marine animals is a worthwhile cause.
After all, the only merit of having such wildlife kept in captivity is to increase mankind’s understanding of them. If, as pointed out, you are able to study them equally well in nature, then there is really no good reason to hold them. And lets face it, the fact of the matter is that these animals are really kept to entertain us, purely for amusement and pleasure. The docu-movie further fingered a certain Singapore-based entertainment facility as being an arbiter of dolphin-hunting expeditions so as to provide them with the adequate number of performers for their underwater displays.
At the end of the day, it is really an enslavement of our underwater counterparts (and im not talking about mermaids), getting them to jump through hoops and slash around to our own ends. Are we really going to let our children walk away from such displays believing that it is right to subjugate these animals to our will simply because we find ourselves at the top of the food chain?
