Orca Action Month film series brings free documentary screenings to San Juans

Four Events. Six Documentary Films. One Urgent Story

||| FROM ELLEN ROBERTS & KAREN PALMER for ORCA ACTION MONTH ||| 

Throughout June the San Juan Islands are celebrating Orca Action Month with a remarkable series of free documentary film screenings dedicated to the story of the Southern Resident killer whales as well as the salmon, rivers, kelp forests, and communities whose fates are bound to theirs. The Orca Action Month Film Series is presented by the Stewardship Network of the San Juans, a coalition of conservation-based organizations working collaboratively to protect the Salish Sea ecosystem, and co-sponsored by the Friday Harbor Film Festival, the San Juan Islands Visitors Bureau, The Whale Museum, the Center for Whale Research, F.O.L.K.S. (Friends of Lime Kiln Society), and Friends of the San Juans.

Each screening will be followed by a Q&A with scientists, filmmakers, and advocates whose work is shaping the future of orca conservation in the Pacific Northwest. All screenings are free to attend and open to the public. Donations are gratefully accepted. Full details about the films can be found in a blog post at fhff.org.

June 4: Counting Orca at 7 PM at San Juan Island Grange
The series opens with Counting Orca (2025, 27 min.), a cinematic tribute to the endangered Southern Resident killer whales and to Dr. Kenneth C. Balcomb III (1940–2022), the scientist who began the census that has served as the bedrock for their protection for nearly five decades. Following the film, two researchers from the Center for Whale Research will join for a Q&A: Dr. Michael Weiss, Research Director, and David K. Ellifrit, Orca Survey Lead.

June 12: Elwha River Salmon Recovery + Kelp Lifeways at 7 PM at The Whale Museum, Friday Harbor
Elwha River Salmon Recovery (12 min., 35 sec.) tells the story of the Elwha River salmon in the years following the removal of two dams, to this day the largest dam removal in U.S. history, that had blocked fish passage for a century. The science is real, the images of salmon at different stages of life are riveting, and the open questions about full recovery are treated honestly. Kelp Lifeways (17 min.) explores the ecological and cultural significance of kelp forests in the Pacific Northwest. The film highlights the deep ancestral ties Coast Salish and other Pacific Northwest tribes have with kelp, while documenting the collaborative work of scientists, resource managers, and tribal citizens to monitor and restore declining kelp populations across the Salish Sea. The films will be followed by a Q&A with their maker, Florian Graner, Ph.D., Executive Director of Sound Water Stewards.

June 21: Lime Kiln Point State Park and the Killer Whales + Resident Orca at 7 PM at San Juan Island Grange
Lime Kiln Point State Park and the Killer Whales celebrates the iconic relationship between Lime Kiln Point, the best place in the country to observe whales from shore, and the Southern Resident killer whales that return to its waters every season to hunt Chinook salmon that make up 80% of their diet. Resident Orca (2024, 97 min.) chronicles the decades-long fight to free Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut, known to the Miami Seaquarium as Lolita and to her advocates as Tokitae, from captivity. Captured as a 4-year-old calf during the 1970 Penn Cove mass capture on Whidbey Island, she spent more than 53 years performing in what was widely described as the smallest killer whale tank in North America. The Q&A will feature Marcia Henton Davis, who served as Tokitae’s trainer and caretaker at the Miami Seaquarium from 1987 to 1995, one of the few people to develop a genuine close bond with the orca over Tokitae’s decades in captivity.

June 26: The Snake and the Whale at 7 PM at San Juan Island Library & Lopez Center for Community and the Arts
Part of the FHFF Best of the Fest Series The Snake and the Whale (2025, 96 min) examines the four federal dams impounding the Lower Snake River and their cascading impact on Idaho’s once-legendary salmon runs, and on the 74 Southern Resident orcas whose survival depends on those salmon. Through the lens of investigative journalism, it asks the question communities across the Pacific Northwest are wrestling with what will it take to bring them back? Following the film, audiences will hear a recorded interview with Executive Producer Scott Levy, an environmental advocate of nearly three decades working to protect and restore Idaho’s salmon runs, with updates on the film and the ongoing fight for dam removal.