The Cove, if you haven’t seen it – and you probably haven’t, since the documentary seems not to be doing so well in theatres, despite being as gripping and watchable as a Bourne movie – concerns the efforts of a group of environmentalists, led by former dolphin trainer, now dolphin liberator Ric O’Barry to document the slaughter of dolphins in a well-protected cove in a small village in Japan.

The movie has problems – a whole lot of assertions get made that are never fully proven, and there’s a whole lot more cloak-and-dagger activity going on than seems necessary in the end. It’s miles above your average Michael Moore movie in terms of seamlessness, accuracy, and focus, but there are still a few questions raised amid all the dazzling visuals. All the same, it’s a powerful movie, and one that will likely bring an end to that particular annual slaughter.

As the movie documents, however – again, not always in a completely balanced way – there are a lot of people who don’t want this information to get out. The Tokyo International Film Festival, for example, initially refused to screen it, though they have since relented and it screened there last week. (They deny that either decision was political.)

Now that the film is out there, and getting some attention, probably the best bet for those who wish the dolphin slaughter to continue is to discredit it. How? Well, one way would be to simply say the whole thing is staged.

It’s not exactly evidence of a Grand Conspiracy, but there does seem to be a certain, mmm, synchronicity to many of the comments made about the movie on IMDB.com. The best are all the claims made that the film was actually shot in Canada, an unexpected bit of conspiracy CanCon.

By the way, Lisa Kitamaya at BoingBoing.net spoke to director Louie Psihoyos shortly after he got back from the Tokyo to get his reaction to the screening:

All the bad guys there, front row center. The mayor, the International Whaling Committee delegate, fishermen dressed up in suits…I couldn’t have dreamed of a better screening. They had all come to Tokyo with their lawyers to see if there would be any kind of litigation against the film. The screening sold out within a few hours, so I offered to give them tickets. At one point, the mayor stormed out, and the IWC delegate held his head in his hands.

I thought I might get arrested when I got off the airplane in Tokyo — there are arrest warrants out for me in Taiji for things like trespassing, conspiracy to disrupt commerce, and photographing undercover police. I was invited by the TIFF, though, so that’s probably what kept me safe.