Louie Psihoyos wants people of Taiji in Japan to see his Oscar-winning movie about annual hunt by 'handful of thugs'

This article is more than 9 years old

This article is more than 9 years old

The director of The Cove, an Oscar-winning film about the annual slaughter of dolphins in Taiji on Japan's Pacific coast, has sent free DVDs of the movie to the town's residents.

Louie Psihoyos said he was concerned that the film had not been given enough exposure in Japan, particularly among the 3,500 residents of Taiji.

The American director said Japanese-language copies of the movie, which last year won the Oscar for best documentary, had been delivered to every household in Taiji over the weekend with the help of a local ocean conservation group.

"The people of Taiji deserve to know what millions of others around the world have learned about their town," he told Associated Press.

The town office confirmed it had received two copies of the film, dubbed into Japanese, but added that no one had watched it yet.

Taiji has been the target of widespread criticism since The Cove's release in 2009.

The film documents attempts by conservationists to record the slaughter of bottlenose dolphins and pilot whales – also members of the dolphin family – in a secluded cove that gave the film its name.

The crew captured the cull using remote-controlled helicopters and worked under cover of darkness to position hidden underwater cameras.

Between September and March about two dozen of Taiji's fishermen catch up to 2,300 of Japan's annual quota of 20,000 dolphins. While the number is small Taiji has been singled out for criticism because of the way in which the animals are killed.

Rather than being harpooned at sea, they are herded into shallow water before being hacked to death, a scene captured by the Guardian at the start of the 2009 hunting season.

The meat from a single dolphin fetches up to 50,000 yen (£380), with aquariums prepared to pay up to £90,000 for certain types. In the year ending in March 2010, 79 dolphins were exported from Japan for 277m yen (£2.1m), the government says.

The Cove made its Japan debut at last year's Tokyo international film festival and later went on general release. Several cinemas in Japan decided not to show it, however, after ultra-nationalists threatened to disrupt screenings.

Psihoyos, who paid for the DVD shipment himself, said the film was not intended as a criticism of Taiji residents.

"I hope the people of Taiji feel a sense of relief when they see The Cove, because they'll realise that it is just a handful of local environmental thugs giving a whole nation a black eye, not them," Psihoyos said. "To me the film is a love letter to the people of Taiji."