LOS ANGELES (Kyodo) "The Cove," a U.S. documentary about dolphin hunting in Wakayama Prefecture, has been named best documentary at the Critics' Choice Awards in Los Angeles.
The film, directed by Louis Psihoyos, won the Best Documentary Feature award Friday, beating four other nominees, including "Michael Jackson's This Is It," according to the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the largest film critics' organization in the United States and Canada.
"The Cove" shows the pains a special team put together by Psihoyos goes through to film the killing of dolphins by local fishermen in a hidden cove in the whaling town of Taiji, the main source of dolphins captured for entertainment use around the world and one of several regional areas in Japan where dolphin meat has traditionally been consumed.
After screenings in the United States and Australia, the movie prompted criticism of dolphin hunting in the town. Local fishermen responded that it is part of a Japanese tradition.