REVIEWS
REVIEWS and AWARDS
Since the first version of this film in 2007, it has been noticed.
Winner, Best Documentary, Canadian Film and Television Production Association
Winner, Audience Choice, Best Feature, Santa Barbara International Film Festival
Winner, Audience Choice, Best Film, Middle East International Film Festival
Winner, Audience Choice, Best Film, Durban International Film Festival
Winner, Audience Award, Best Feature, Environmental Film Festival at Yale
Winner, Audience Award, Best Film, San Francisco Ocean Film Festival
Winner, Audience Award, Best Film, Canary Islands International Ecological Film Festival
Winner, Panda Award, Best People and Animals, Wildscreen Festival
Winner, Panda Award, Best Script, Wildscreen Festival
Winner, Best People and Animals, Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival
Winner, Grand Prize, Giant Panda Golden Cup, China Nature and Animal Film Festival
Winner, Best Documentary, Bermuda International Film Festival
Winner, Best Documentary, Victoria Film Festival
Winner, Best Documentary, Nature/ Environment, Leo Awards
Winner, Best Entertainment Award, Japan Wildlife Film Festival
Winner, Special Jury Prize, Palm Beach International Film Festival
Winner, Special Jury Award, Banff Mountain Film Festival
Winner, Special Jury Prize, Wild and Scenic Film Festival
Winner, Best Canadian Film, Projecting Change Film Festival
Winner, Best Environmental Film, Byron Bay Film Festival
Winner, Best Storyline, International Wildlife Film Festival
Winner, Merit Award for Educational Value, International Wildlife Film Festival
Winner, Best Nature and Wildlife, Houston International Film Festival
Winner, Chris Awards, Honorable Mention, Columbus Film Festival
Commendation, Genesis Awards, Best Feature Film, HSUS Hollywood
Runner-up, Audience Choice, Bermuda International Film Festival
Runner-up, Audience Award, Our Island, Our World Film Festival
Runner-up, Best on the Edge Film, Sheffield Adventure Film Festival
Nominated, IDA Pare Lorentz Award, International Documentary Association
Nominated, Toyota Earth Grand Prix, Tokyo International Film Festival
Nominated, Best Wildlife and Nature Program, Banff World Television Awards
Nominated, Best Canadian Documentary, Vancouver International Film Festival
Nominated, Best Maritime Film, GreenScreen International Wildlife Film Festival
Nominated, Best Conservation Film, Environment and Wildlife Film Festival, New Delhi
Nominated, Japan Prize, Tokyo, Japan
Finalist, Green Competition, Green Film Festival in Seoul, Korea
Finalist, Best Theatrical Film and Best of Festival, BLUE Ocean Film Festival
Finalist, New Zealand Mountain Film Festival
Samples from full length reviews
There is a gossamer lyricism to “The Whale” a documentary about an orca that became separated from its pod and adopted the residents of Nootka Sound in British Columbia as much as they did him. Like humans, orcas are highly social creatures, and Luna, as he was called, was the life of the party.
The nuance of his gestures were wondrous to behold: playful, exuberantly extending the fin of friendship, he even helped timber workers in the area, pushing logs through the water with his nose.
Government authorities, however, in their determination to protect Luna, outlawed human contact with him. But Luna, who loved to be petted, was not so easily deterred. Eventually a movement gathered online to reunite Luna physically with his pod. But rumors spread about his being placed in captivity, and the First Nation tribal population around Nootka Sound, seeing Luna as a supernatural presence, resisted his apprehension.
But the film delves past regional concerns into larger philosophical questions that it does not pretend to answer. Nor does it talk down to the viewer; this is a documentary ideal for schoolrooms, family viewing and discussion. The issues surrounding the emotional lives of animals — and the often presumptuous assumption of humans that they comprehend them — are explored in “The Whale” with a quiet dignity and gorgeous images.
By Greg Quill, Toronto Star
The real-life story of Luna – the orphaned male orca that found itself abandoned in 2001 in B.C.‘s Nootka Sound and opted for human company over finding its pod – begs big-budget Hollywood treatment.
But nothing Hollywood could do . . . would say more about the mysterious relationship between humans and wild animals than Canadian nature journalists and filmmakers Michael Parfit and Suzanne Chisholm have with their documentary Saving Luna.
Their original 2004 brief was simple enough: spend three weeks evaluating the orca’s apparent need for human company and write it up for the Smithsonian Institution – not a big task for seasoned writers, photographers and filmmakers with National Geographic credits. But as co-director and narrator Parfit explains in the film, the story’s dimensions and dynamics kept changing. After all, the forbidden divide was breached by the animal, not by humans.
With the patience and detachment of true scientists, the filmmakers resist – even disparage – the urge to ascribe human qualities and rationale to the orca’s actions and attempts to communicate.
They focus instead on photographing Nootka Sound’s majestic other-worldliness and the bewildering efforts of humans to cope with what is, on one hand, a creature in peril and on the other, a dangerous nuisance.
That Parfit and Chisholm eventually become part of the story is inevitable. Breaking the order imposed by Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans, as well as defying his own scientific and journalistic imperatives, Parfit finally cannot resist making eye contact with the animal and strokes its warm body.
That simple, satisfying act wordlessly acknowledges the existence of a bridge between the consciousness of the wild unknown and so-called civilized human beings – “a friendship deeper than we know,” Parfit says – that has been building inexorably throughout the film and is its very purpose. No science explains it. Parfit and Chisholm don’t even try to deconstruct the mystery of which they’ve become a part, nor do they over-sentimentalize the whale’s dilemma, behaviour and undoing.
As witness to both human folly and faith, and to Luna’s evident choice to live among us, Saving Luna raises more questions than it attempts to answer.
But it does deliver a powerful argument: We may have more to learn from animals than they do from us, and intellectually separating ourselves from them – even for the benefit of the wild kingdom – may not be such a great idea.
My daughter and I were captivated by “Lost Orca: The Legend of Luna.” The beautiful storytelling showcases breathtaking scenery and eloquently conveys the importance of harmony between humans and nature. It is an immersive experience that truly emphasizes that … together is how we live.” — Darcy M, Canada, Audience review.