Boulder director of ‘The Cove’ stands firm in face of lawsuit

Award-winning Boulder filmmaker Louie Psihoyos is being sued by one of the scientists interviewed for his blockbuster documentary, The Cove. Tetsuya Endo says his reputation has been tarnished and he wants his interviews removed from the film, which has already won an Oscar.

Psihoyos is having none of it, telling the Associated Press that the man agreed to be interviewed, knew he was being filmed, and that nothing about the interview was taken out of context.

From this morning’s Washington Post:

TOKYO — A scientist says his reputation has been tarnished by the U.S. documentary “The Cove,” a graphic account of Japanese dolphin-hunting, and is demanding that footage of his interview be removed from the movie.

Film director Louie Psihoyos said Wednesday he stood behind his movie, that University of Hokkaido toxicologist Tetsuya Endo had agreed to be interviewed and that the footage of him was not taken out of order or otherwise doctored.

“He talked on the record at length to us, several times,” he told The Associated Press. “He did say the things that he said, in the order that he said them. What we published was the truth, and now he wants to take back the truth.”

The Oscar-winning documentary shows dolphins herded into a cove in the Japanese fishing village of Taiji, and stabbed by fishermen on small boats, turning the water red with blood.

Psihoyos is also the founder of the non-profit Ocean Preservation Society.

Here, a clip promoting the movie, which documents the slaughter of dolphins off the Japanese coast:

Got a tip? Freelance story pitch? Send us an e-mail. Follow The Colorado Independent on Twitter.