The Cove director risks arrest at Tokyo screening

The director of an award-winning documentary about Japan's dolphin slaughter said Friday that he plans to attend the screening of The Cove at the Tokyo film festival even though he could be arrested.

Japanese police say American director Louie Psihoyos and other members of his crew violated trespassing laws when they documented the hunt in the seaside town of Taiji, where 2,000 dolphins are killed every year, mostly to be sold as meat.

The film shows fishermen on small boats banging on poles to frighten the dolphins into a cove, where they are then killed with spears. The cove is closed off by barbed wire, and the film crew had to film much of the footage covertly.

The film has won more than a dozen awards and led to an outpouring of outrage at the hunt. Initially, it wasn't part of the program for the Tokyo International Film Festival, which opens Oct. 17, but was added partly because of pressure from abroad.

Psihoyos said he wasn't concerned about getting arrested if it was for the right cause, saying he sees covert filming as a form of civil disobedience. He also says he disagrees with how Japanese authorities were defining trespassing, because the cove is in a national park.

"You can't trespass in almost any other national park in the world that's made for people," Psihoyos, 52, told The Associated Press by telephone from Helsinki. "I don't think I was trespassing in a legal sense."

Festival chief Tom Yoda told reporters this week that he would hold the film's producers accountable for any possible problems at the screening. He refused to elaborate.

Psihoyos shrugged off such worries. He said his film has $5 million US in insurance to handle lawsuits.

'Dream' screening in Japan

Despite the controversy, Psihoyos, a National Geographic photographer, said he was excited about the film being shown in Japan.

"To me, it's like a dream" he said. "It's going to be a win for the dolphins. It's going to be a win for the Japanese people. And it's going to be a win for the environment."

Psihoyos said he hopes The Cove warns Taiji residents and other Japanese about the dangers of eating dolphin meat, which he says has been found to be loaded with toxic mercury.

The Japanese government acknowledges dolphin meat is contaminated with mercury, but denies it's dangerous unless consumed in huge quantities.Most Japanese have never eaten dolphin meat, but it is consumed as a delicacy in some areas.

The annual dolphin hunt in Taiji starts in September.But things appear to have changed after The Cove even before its Tokyo premiere.Earlier this week, 70 dolphins from this year's first catch were set free.

"I was elated. I am cautiously optimistic it's the start of good things for the Japanese people," Psihoyos said.