Negative media coverage on the never-ending whaling issue prompted first-time documentary filmmaker Keiko Yagi to find out more about the topic. With no budget, limited experience in filmmaking, no fluency in English, but armed with a video camera and a strong desire to find out about the truth of the matter on whaling, Yagi started her research.

Everyone knows Sue, the majestic Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton that is the pride of Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History. Less known is the bizarre seven-year tale of intrigue, perfidy, double-dealing, and government intervention that resulted in the dinosaur-hunting discoverers, members of South Dakota’s Black Hills Institute, being divested of their find, cheated of recognition, and even sent to prison. Assembly of the gigantic fossil is something of a metaphor for filmmaker Miller’s meticulous reconstruction of a story that includes home movie footage of Sue’s discovery and recovery, her 1992 kidnapping by heavily armed FBI agents, a rip-roaring courtroom drama as her ownership falls into dispute, and her eventual sale at auction for a heart-stopping sum.

2015 film by Louie Psihoyos

2009 film by Louie Psihoyos