THREE CHEERS FOR THE WHALE chronicles the history of mankind's relationship with the largest and most majestic of marine mammals, and graphically exposes their slaughter by the fishing industry. Chris Marker's co-director, Mario Ruspoli, descendant of an aristocratic Italian family, had been a journalist, painter and ethnologist before discovering his vocation as a documentary filmmaker. In the Sixties he became one of the founders -along with Jean Rouch, Edgar Morin and Chris Marker- of the "direct cinema" movement, pioneering in the use of new lightweight cameras and synchronous sound recording equipment.