KARACHI: Screening of a documentary, Blackfish, on The Second Floor on Sunday left the audience gasping and emotional by the end of it.

An associate creative manager at an advertising agency, Batool Habib Crumally, took special permission from NBC universal for a public screening at T2F.

Premiered at the Sundance film festival in 2013, the one-hour documentary explores the reasons behind the death of a veteran trainer, Dawn Brancheau, in 2010 by a performing killer whale,Tilikum, who pulled her underwater after grabbing hold of her forearm.

Basically considered a `human friendly and intelligent animal,` director Gabriella Cowperthwaite, explores the reasons behind the whale`s contradictory behaviour towards those who train and feed it.

Through emotional interviews with former trainers working closely with whales, the Blackfish narrates, among other things, that how little trainers actually know about the animals they work with.

In one of the interviews, a former trainer at SeaWorld theme park narrates that how the autopsy reports of Ms Brancheau stated `blunt injuries to the head, neck and torso,` while the higher-ups blamed it on her, adding that she was pulled by her `ponytail which confused the animal.

Blinking away tears, he said that, `how dare you put the blame on her, when she`s not alive to defend herself?` The whales, also known as Orca whales, had killed twice before Ms Brancheau, but their odd behaviour was not discussedmuch by the higher-ups at the SeaWorld, who continued holding entertainment shows for public. Though a court ruling in May 2012 ordered the trainers to be behind barriers, the SeaWorld chose to go for an appeal.

The documentary also looks at the history of the killer whale and argues that being in captivity 24/7 `frustrates and aggravates the animal, causing them to attack`. In one of the scenes, a mother whale was seen wailing in front of an underwater camera after her month old baby whale was switched to another theme park.

At once raw and emotional with a scep-tical look at the entertainment theme parks, the director asks many questions and leaves some for the audience to understand by the end.

After showing clips after clips of various incidents involving the animals attacking the trainers, the documentary showed their trainers setting the killer whales free in the end.

The room was silent and still after the screening was over. Finally, a teacher, who did not share her name, commented that the first thing she will do is to show the film at her school. `It`s important for the kids to understand that the whale belongs in the sea.