Director of 'The Cove' Puts Oscar in Perspective

A wave of new attention is likely to fall on a remote fishing village in Japan after director Louie Psihoyos accepted the best feature documentary prize for "'The Cove'":http://www.thecovemovie.com/ at the 82nd Academy Awards on Sunday. His film about the slaughter of dolphins and marine mercury poisoning has shocked many audiences, and recently, caused Japanese officials to suspend killing in the cove. On Monday, "the village from the cove came out to dispute its depiction in the film":http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/with-the-cove-victorious-at-oscars-japanese-village-defends-itself/. Psihoyos told us that if his microphone hadn't been cut off during his team's Oscar acceptance speech, he would have told the world that all ocean life -- not only the dolphin -- is in peril from over-fishing and other dangerous human influences. (Text of his full planned speech is "here":http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/03/08/oscar-speech-the-cove/.)             Art Beat "caught up with Psihoyos (and the other nominated filmmakers last week":http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/blog/2010/03/at-the-oscars-documentarians-hope-to-inspire-change.html ahead of the awards show, and again Monday for some perspective on the big win: