Photo: Courtesy of Spindrift Images
Review by Rebecca M. Alvin
Cheryl and Nick Dean’s documentary The Right Whale: Tales of Resilience and Hope begins in the Auckland Islands where southern right whale mothers come to give birth to their calves. The imagery is stunning and the sight of mother whales tending to their offspring with great care is heartwarming. Of course, any documentary about right whales is going to tell a story of entanglements and obstacles imposed by industry upon marine mammals. But the Deans begin
their film in the Auckland Islands to show us what successful conservation looks like. The narrator tells us that by 1920 there were just 25 breeding females there, but through a commitment to conservation, today there are hundreds in these calving grounds every year.
Unfortunately, that’s not the situation for their cousins, the northern right whales—the ones we hear about every year and even see entangled on beaches in New England and elsewhere north of the equator. The northern right whales are a species facing dwindling numbers as they face problems ranging from vessel strikes and fishing gear entanglements that kill them and obstacles to their migratory paths that interrupt reproduction cycles causing their numbers to spiral downward over the course of many decades. Their lives are very different from the southern right whales, as they live in a part of the world where conservation has not been a commitment, at least not in a broad sense across governments and large industries. Where the southern right whale mothers give birth to one baby every three years, in the northern species, it’s more like one every eight years. And the life expectancy of these offspring is not very high at all.
The Right Whale is a gorgeous film that will fill you with awe as you watch these immense but gentle creatures frolic and socialize in their beautiful ocean environments. It’s also an informative and fascinating documentary about the lives of both southern and northern right whales, the latter of which makes its way to our waters every spring for the feeding grounds up north. It’s always an exciting moment when one is spotted from the shore, but having the opportunity to see and hear them in a movie theater is a chance you will not want to pass up. It is a cinematic experience that brings you up close to them and offers scientific and environmental perspectives that seek to deepen the appreciation you may already have for these creatures. It is a call to action, but one that offers a look at the positive outcomes that can and do happen when humans decide to look out for our fellow mammals.
The Right Whale screens on Wednesday, April 22 (Earth Day), 7 p.m. at Waters Edge Cinema, 237 Commercial St., Whalers Wharf Mall, 2nd fl., Provincetown, as part of the Planet Ptown film series presented in partnership with the Center for Coastal Studies. For tickets and information call 508.487.FILM or visit ptownfilm.org/cinema.
