
In 2019, Simon Schneider and Sarah Sharkey Pearce set out to make a film about the last living Southern Resident Killer Whale in captivity, an orca named Lolita (or “Toki”), who had been captured in Puget Sound in 1970. Lolita spent more than half a century in the Miami Seaquarium’s “Whale Bowl’, a tank that measured 80 x 35 foot, and only 6 metres deep. As filming progressed, they joined a coalition of environmentalists, billionaire philanthopists, disenchanted ex trainers, and Lummi elders, all fighting to have the aging and ailing orca returned to her ocean home. It proves a long and painful odyssey, but also provides remarkable insights into how humans and animals feel about each other.
Apr 2: Q&A with director Simon Schneider & Tah-Mahs Ellie Kinely
Sarah Sharkey Pearce & Simon Schneider
Squil-le-he-le Raynell Morris, Tah-Mahs Ellie Kinely
Canada
2024
English
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Screenwriter
Sarah Sharkey Pearce, Simon Schneider
Cinematography
Simon Schneider
Editor
Tony Kent
Original Music
Josh Zubot, Jesse Zubot
Also Playing
To a Land Unknown
In this outstanding crime drama, two Palestinian cousins are exiled in Athens and in dire need of funds for fake passports to move their family to Germany. A slippery slope of moral compromise awaits as they resort to human smuggling and hostage-taking.
Drop Dead City
New York, 1975. The city is minutes away from bankruptcy and President Gerald Ford wants no part of it. Sanitation workers are on strike and cops are telling tourists it's not safe to visit. The town is going up in flames and they can't pay the firemen.
Sinners
This year's unexpected box office sleeper is that rare beast, a genre movie full of bold invention and surprise. We are in Mississippi in the early 1930s, and the opening of a new blues joint on the edge of town is the signal for all hell to break out.
The Graduate
In The Graduate Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman, 30 playing 20 with masterly understatement) comes home from college and is surprised to be seduced by the wife of his father's business partner, Mrs Robinson (Anne Bancroft).
blur: To the End
Now in their late 50s, Britpopsters blur (of Song 2 fame) do a celebratory lap of Great Britain culminating in their first ever Wembley Stadium show in this appealing observational doc. A companion piece to the concert film Live at Wembley Stadium.