A Nanaimo independent film producer hopes to create cinema from scientific research to help save B.C.’s southern killer whales.
Stephanie Watkins and her team plan to create a documentary film about the south B.C. coast region’s orca whales and the researchers trying to save them.
Watkins hopes to finance the project with $50,000 awarded from Telus StoryHive, which awards production grants, training and mentorship opportunities and distribution for the best short film ideas.
Watkins is competing against other documentary proposals from B.C. and Alberta. Initial selections are based on votes from the public. Voting started today, July 30, and ends at noon Thursday, Aug. 2.
“This is [StoryHive’s] documentary edition. This is the first one they’ve ever done,” Watkins said. “They’re giving 30 filmmakers $50,000 each to make a 15-minute documentary. This is a big deal because they usually only give away $10,000.”
The large amount of grant money has drawn a lot of competition, which along with Watkins’s proposal, can be viewed on StoryHive’s Documentary Edition page.
“The competition is going to be very tough,” she said. “They’re picking 15 projects based on votes from the public and they’re picking 15 more projects based on their jury.”
Watkins’ documentary proposal Salish Orca: Guardian of the Sea arose from her personal interest in the animals that began when she was a child in Newfoundland in the 1970s.
“One of the most famous movies of all time about killer whales was Orca and it was filmed in Petty Harbour, N.L., which was about 20 minutes from where I grew up, so when that movie came out every Newfoundlander saw that movie,” Watkins said.
Now Watkins has channelled her lifelong interest into protecting the southern resident orcas, which she views as an icon synonymous with British Columbia.
The whales are struggling to survive under pressures from pollution, marine traffic and food shortages. There are about 75 of the whales left in the super pod that inhabit the south Salish Sea waters around the Gulf Islands. A recent death in the pod drew international attention when video was recorded of J35, a female orca that carried her calf, that died soon after it was born, for several days, trying to keep it close to the water surface. The calf was the first born to the pod in three years.
The $50,000 grant would allow Watkins and her team to produce the quality of documentary needed to help meet the challenge of illustrating to the public the significance the potential loss of this orca group, which she said is unique from other whale pods in a number of respects that include its choice of food – one reason the group is endangered is because it feeds on chinook salmon that are in scarce supply – and its distinct form of communication.
“I think a lot of people in British Columbia really care about these whales, but they don’t know enough to help them,” she said. “They’ve been endangered for a very long time … It’s the equivalent of losing a culture. This group and its language are unique in the world,” she said.
At least three other Nanaimo documentary filmmakers are also looking for votes in the StoryHive contest. More articles will be posted on the News Bulletin website today and tomorrow.
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