Saving Luna
Suzanne Chisholm & Michael Parfit
(SUNDAY, 7:45 P.M., NUG)
IN PERSON: Michael Parfit
“There is a wall, built of fear and respect, which normally stands between humans and wild beings. We humans tell sweet and magical fables about going through that wall and making friends with a mysterious creature on the other side…. But we don’t think it could actually happen,” narrates filmmaker Michael Parfit in this moving documentary about a young male killer whale named Luna. Parfit and partner Suzanne Chisholm went to British Columbia in 2004 to tell the story of a baby orca that had mysteriously appeared alone in Nootka Sound in July 2001. Orcas are among the most social of mammals, and the isolated juvenile whale clearly sought to make a connection with the human inhabitants of the sound. As the film explores the nature of interspecies relationships, it also invites debate: Is befriending a wild animal ever in its best interest?
—Mary Duffy