REVIEWS: The Promise
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1993:
The Promise, music video, CD, and audio
tape by Cathy Kinsman, Vital Scenes Productions Inc.,
Swansea Postal Station, Box 88558, 34 Southport St.,
Toronto, Ontario M6S 4Z8 Canada. $20 in video or CD
format; $15 as tape.
Illinois activist Steve Hindi described The
Promise to ANIMAL PEOPLE as a beautiful, non-shock-
ing, non-confrontational way to introduce the public to
captive dolphin issues. Maybe, but not by itself. Except
for singer Kinsman’s facial expressions and the brief non-
speaking appearance of Ric O’Barry with a picket sign, one
would never know from this that dolphins don’t enjoy being
in amusement parks as much as Mickey Mouse. The
Promise is beautiful, and very well produced (as one
would expect from the price), but you’ll need a lot of good
accompanying handouts to use it effectively in a public
forum. One plus: Wolf Clifton, age three, watches the
brief video as often as anyone will rewind it for him. Any
profits, Kinsman pledges, will aid dolphin rescue projects
including the campaign to free Bogie and Bacall and the
effort to end “rent-a-dolphin” shows promoted by Marine
Animal Productions of Gulfport, Mississippi.
––Merritt Clifton
