SAVING LUNA – A Whale Story

  • Friday, October 9, 8:00 p.m.
  • Fort Worden State Park - Wheeler Theater
  • Admission: Adults - $8, Youths under 16 - $5
  • Includes admission to the Expo
  • This film is suitable for youth over 14.

The Wildlife Art Expo provides the opportunity for people to be educated, through art, about our environment and the wildlife that thrive in it. This year’s Expo features the orca whale and opens with a showing of Saving Luna – A Whale Story. This award-winning 2008 film documents the story of Luna, an orca whale, and his unexpected interactions with the human population of Nootka Sound in British Columbia. The Port Townsend Marine Science Center and The Whale Museum, from Friday Harbor, will offer educational presentations throughout the Expo. Families are encouraged to attend and learn about this important local animal species.

About SAVING LUNA

This Canadian film has won numerous awards including Best Documentary at the Victoria Film Festival, Best Storyline and Merit Award for Educational Value at the International Wildlife Film Festival, and was the Official Selection at the Seattle International Film Festival. Directors Suzanne Chisholm and Michael Parfit have directed, produced and filmed over 20 stories for the National Geographic Channel and their work has appeared on CNN, PBS, NHK, and CBC. One of the filmmakers will be available after the showing for discussion and any questions. Saving Luna was released theatrically in Canada in December 2008.

The film is about Luna, a baby killer whale, that gets separated from his family on the rugged, wild coast of Vancouver Island. All alone, he seems determined to make friends with humans. People fall in love with him - a cook on an old freighter, a gruff fisheries officer, an elder and a young man from a First Nations band. But the government decides that being friendly with Luna is bad for him, and tries to keep him and people apart.

This effort becomes hilarious and baffling, because Luna refuses to give up his search for a social life. This leads to battles between the government and the First Nations, and between those who love Luna and those who think a wild animal who inconveniences humans should be killed. In the end, Saving Luna explores one of the greatest of mysteries: Who are these lives who share the planet with us humans, and what are the connections between us that we do not yet know?

For more information about this film, visit www.SavingLuna.com