LOS ANGELES PREMIERE
DOCUMENTARY | CANADA | 97 MINUTES | English
RESIDENT ORCA
Directors Sarah Sharkey Pearce, Simon Schneider
RESIDENT ORCA tells the shocking true story of a captive whale’s fight for survival and freedom. After decades of failed attempts to bring her home, an unlikely partnership between Indigenous matriarchs, a billionaire philanthropist, killer whale experts, and the aquarium’s new owner take on the herculean task of freeing Lolita, captured 53 years ago as a child, only to spend the rest of her life performing in the smallest killer whale tank in North America. When Lolita falls ill under troubling circumstances, her advocates are faced with a painful question: is it too late to save her?
From Executive Producers Squil-le-he-le (Raynell Morris) and Tah-Mahs (Ellie Kinley) of Lummi Nation and first-time feature documentary directors, Sarah Sharkey Pearce and Simon Schneider, this intimate and heart-breaking narrative explores our relationship with the natural world through a captive whale and the attempts to return her to her wild family.
CAST & CREDITS
Director
Sarah Sharkey Pearce, Simon Schneider
Producer
Sarah Sharkey Pearce, Simon Schneider
Screenwriter
Sarah Sharkey Pearce, Simon Schneider
Executive Producer
Squil-le-he-le Raynell Morris, Tah-Mahs Ellie Kinley, James Costa, Lynne Kirby
Editor
Tony Kent
Composer
Jesse and Josh Zubot
Directors Bio
SARAH SHARKEY PEARCE
Sarah is an award-winning documentary TV director, writer and executive producer. Her work appears on platforms such as Starz, Vice, BBC Arts, CBC, and Crave among others. As a queer filmmaker, Sarah also has a long history of working to decolonize her practice and disrupt power dynamics between producer and subject. Resident Orca, directed and produced for Crave Originals, is her feature documentary debut.
SIMON SCHNEIDER
Simon is an award-winning documentary cinematographer and director. His work appears on platforms such as Netflix, HBO, Sundance TV, Arte, Film4, and National Geographic among others. With a degree in marine biology and a MFA in science and natural history filmmaking, Simon has a passion for stories at the intersection of people and nature. Resident Orca, directed and produced for Crave Originals, is his feature documentary debut.
Directors Statement
In 2019 we set out to make a film about the last living Southern Resident Killer Whale in captivity, an orca named Lolita. Her story resonated deeply with us – her history, a mirror of our settler-colonial legacy and treatment of the world around us. In development, we met with people whose lives intersected with the whale – captors, ex-trainers, scientists, journalists, advocates, and philanthropists. Many of these people participated in our film, but no one we met had a stronger connection to the whale than Indigenous Lummi Elders Squil-le-he-le (Raynell Morris) and Tah-Mahs (Ellie Kinley) from Washington State.
Raynell and Ellie invited us to document their ongoing journey to return their whale relative to her home waters. As participants and Executive Producers, the duo play a pivotal role in shaping the film’s narrative – their claim to Lolita progressing the public conversation around the whale and her family from one of animal rights to one of inherent rights.
Through the effort to free her the film reveals Lolita through the complex web of humans around her. Her story becomes a parable for our hopes and our failures, past and present.
Showtimes
Wednesday, November 13
IN-PERSON
Screening: 8:30pm
Post Screening Guest (s) Sarah Sharkey Pearce (Director), Simon Schneider (Director), Squil-le-he-le Raynell Morris (Executive Producer), James Costa (Executive Producer).
Once Purchased
your name will be at ‘Will Call’
AMC The Grove 14
189 The Grove Dr
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Parking
At The Theatre
