Saving Luna

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Saving Luna

Friday December 25 at 6 am ET & Sunday December 27 at 5 pm ET, 2009 on CBC News Network

What happens when a wild orca tries to make friends with people - not for food, but for companionship? Should humans welcome him or turn away?

Saving Luna is the true story of Luna, a baby killer whale who tried to befriend people.

"Our relationship is very special. It's very deep. I have a great love for that mammal. I'd put my life on the line for his protection." - Eugene Amos, Mowachaht Muchalaht First Nation

In 2001, when Luna was just a baby, he found himself alone in Nootka Sound, on the West Coast of Vancouver Island, more than 200 miles away from his family. Orcas normally spend their entire lives together, but Luna was lost.

Without other whales, Luna tried to make contact with humans. But law and science told people to stay away. Yet the same social instincts that drove Luna to seek companionship also brought people to him, in spite of the law.

"Friendship would have been the worst thing you could have done to the animal." - Marilyn Joyce, Marine Mammal Coordinator, Department of Fisheries and Oceans

As Luna got close to people, he became both treasured and feared. To natives he was the spirit of a chief. To boaters he was a goofy friend. To conservationists he was a cause. To scientists he was trouble. To officials he was a danger. As conflict and tragedy stained the waters, Luna became a symbol of the world's wildest beauty: easy to love, hard to save.

This film explores both the nature of friendship and the friendships of nature, and has moved and charmed all ages. With 17 international awards and numerous nominations, Saving Luna is a film the whole family will enjoy.

Saving Luna began with an assignment from Smithsonian magazine to write a story about a curious conflict that was developing in Nootka Sound on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. A whale was trying to make friends with people, and the government was trying to prevent him from doing so.

"It was the most unusual beginning of a whale life that we had documented. And it just kept evolving into more unusual." - Ken Balcomb, Center for Whale Research, San Juan Island, WA

Husband and wife team Michael Parfit and Suzanne Chisholm went to the village of Gold River in the spring of 2004 for three weeks. The short version of what happened there is this: like the thief who came to steal the money, they both fell in love with the subject of this story, and didn't leave. They stayed for three years.

The long version is more complicated than that. It involved a government effort to move Luna, a First Nations effort to prevent the move, and the long consequences for the whale after the initial conflict on the water ended with an uncertain outcome.

Saving Luna is a film by Suzanne Chisholm and Michael Parfit with the support of Telefilm Canada's Theatrical Documentary Program. Produced by Mountainside Films in association with CBC Newsworld.