Just to let you know that our film,“ Saving Luna,” a feature documentary that leaves audiences in love with an orca, has been selected for screening at the Tokyo International Film Festival, October 18-26. It's among 27 films in the big festival's “natural TIFF” section, which showcases 10 new and 27 classic environmental films. It's the only film included that directly covers cetaceans.

We're keenly aware of the fight over Japanese whaling activities, and we believe that the decision to show “Saving Luna” by this major festival adds to considerable other evidence that there's significant openness in Japan to friendlier ways of thinking about cetaceans. The festival is making a big deal about its emphasis on bringing green awareness to its audiences and this helps show that its commitment to fresh ways of thinking about the human relationship to land and sea is genuine.

"Saving Luna" is the story of L-98, a young solitary sociable orca nicknamed Luna, who was separated from his Southern Resident pod in Vancouver Island's Nootka Sound and tried to establish social relationships with humans. The story describes efforts to keep Luna and people apart; a drama that developed when a First Nations band, which believed he was a reincarnated chief, decided to try to prevent him from being captured and relocated closer to his pod; and what happened after that. It touches on such subjects as animal consciousness, human responsibility toward animals, the whole question of how to cope with solitary sociable cetaceans, and the human difficulty in resolving all those issues. "Saving Luna" has won a number of awards in festivals over the past year.

For those who are curious, “Saving Luna” is scheduled for theatrical release later this year, and television broadcasts sometime thereafter. We'll let you know.