I’d say it’s been a hell of a week, but the week isn’t over yet. Last Thursday was the second and last screening of Dolphin Lover at Slamdance. Shortly after that we received an honorable mention for short documentary from the jury, which was awesome.
Our lovely juror @JoshLeake announces the Sparky award for the Doc. Short "Dolphin Lover" #slamdancemotel #room21 pic.twitter.com/VmRgrWjMw8
— Slamdance (@Slamdance) January 30, 2015
At Slamdance we had created a bit of buzz, mostly from our provocative poster, a great article by Arielle Castillo at Fusion, and an interview with The Miami New Times.
A new documentary tells the romantic story of a man who had sex with a dolphin: http://t.co/0bp4Aw0ljb pic.twitter.com/K6KdeXKrrC
— Splinter (@splinter_news) January 26, 2015
Meet the men behind the provocative short film #DolphinLover. http://t.co/B1SAfzKjhr #Sundance #Slamdance pic.twitter.com/70EtsfBUH5
— Miami New Times (@MiamiNewTimes) January 29, 2015
Nothing crazy. We flew back on Friday. When we landed, Kareem and I saw that WTFark had done a 4 minute sketch about the film.
New Documentary Tells Story Of Man Who Had Sex With Dolphin. On Porpoise. (*rimshot*) WATCH: http://t.co/1hTPTfr8gJ pic.twitter.com/JUaVHLrTxE
— So That Happened… (@WTFark) January 30, 2015
Clearly this thing is getting some traction that a 4 minute parody video would be produced about it. It started snowballing from there. Over the weekend all the major British tabloids picked up the story (because how could they not). Now this wasn’t original reporting – it was just a mesh from the few original sources and interviews, plus oddly some of my videos pulled from Instagram merged into an ‘exclusive’ clip. Sometimes they didn’t even cite sources (*cough* Mirror). Quotes usually stay the same, but it sometimes becomes a game of blogger telephone.
Man who had sex with a dolphin in the '70s claims the dolphin seduced him http://t.co/TsvKVMr0KO pic.twitter.com/hmsVKTrNbm
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) January 31, 2015
'I had sex with Dolly the dolphin in year-long affair after she SEDUCED me at theme park' http://t.co/cpvxMgspl3 pic.twitter.com/5F4FZ9AhVj
— The Mirror (@DailyMirror) February 1, 2015
From there things just kept picking up speed. On Monday I woke up to interview requests from the UK, Australia, and some US outlets. Online the game of telephone kept moving rapidly (with some original reporting). Here’s a sampling:
A man's summer-long fling with a dolphin named Dolly is the subject of a new documentary short called Dolphin Lover http://t.co/nP5kVATNGZ
— People Pets (@PEOPLEPets) February 3, 2015
We like dolphins, but not as much as this guy –> http://t.co/vyrW3Cgf3F Yes, he had a love affair w/ a dolphin… 🐬 pic.twitter.com/AuOe7gffa7
— VH1 Celebrity (@VH1Celebrity) February 3, 2015
Just a simple story about a man and the dolphin he says seduced him http://t.co/Wim2hGcVBy
— New York Post (@nypost) February 3, 2015
New documentary features man's sexual affair with a dolphin http://t.co/814wd61TpK
— HuffPost Weird News (@HuffPostWeird) February 3, 2015
Sundance Film Festival 2015: was it all about sex? http://t.co/NNND2rH09b
— Telegraph Film (@TelegraphFilm) February 2, 2015
We spoke with Malcolm Brenner, the zoophile advocate who had sex with a dolphin http://t.co/ArG6WA4vYU pic.twitter.com/Qr49hr24XU
— VICE (@VICE) February 3, 2015
There’s still more press to come. There’s been a lot of lessons learned in viral strategy. We definitely weren’t prepared for this and have been adjusting the website, videos, YouTube channel, and other media as we go. I’m noting it down – will round it up in a future post.
Follow the updates of Dolphin Lover at the website www.dolphinlovermovie.com.
