Orca Action Month Film Series Brings Free Documentary Screenings to San Juan Islands in June 2026
- FHFF
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
Four Events. Six Documentary Films. One Urgent Story.
Throughout the month of June 2026, the San Juan Islands will come together in celebration of Orca Action Month with a remarkable series of free documentary film screenings dedicated to the story of the Southern Resident killer whales — and 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.
June 4, 2026 — Counting Orca
7 PM | San Juan Island Grange | $5 donation encouraged
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. Directed by sisters Jessica Huser and Natalie Taylor, the film is constructed from archival photos, historic footage, and new imagery captured on the water, weaving together past and present voices to honor both the whales and the man who devoted his life to their survival.
In 1976, Dr. Kenneth C. Balcomb III founded the Center for Whale Research’s Orca Survey, establishing the longest-running study of the Southern Resident population and championing a message that resonates with haunting urgency today: "No fish, No Blackfish." Without Chinook salmon, there can be no Southern Resident orcas. At the 2025 Friday Harbor Film Festival’s Opening Night Gala, Dr. Balcomb’s extraordinary legacy was honored with the posthumous presentation of the Andrew V. McLaglen Lifetime Achievement Award, followed by a poignant screening of this film.
Following the film, two researchers from the Center for Whale Research will join for a Q&A: Dr. Michael Weiss, Research Director, whose doctoral work at the University of Exeter focused on the evolutionary and conservation consequences of killer whale social structure; and David K. Ellifrit, Orca Survey Lead and CWR staff member since 1990, widely recognized as one of the foremost orca identification experts in the Eastern North Pacific.
June 12, 2026 — Elwha River Salmon Recovery + Kelp Lifeways
7 PM | The Whale Museum, Friday Harbor | $5 donation encouraged
The second evening brings two short films to The Whale Museum — one about the rivers that feed the Southern Residents, and one about the underwater forests that shelter everything in between.
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. Produced by filmmaker and marine biologist Florian Graner of Sealife Productions, the film documents a recovering ecosystem: rainbow trout populations that have nearly multiplied eightfold, the return of summer steelhead virtually absent before dam removal, and Chinook salmon counts that are the highest since the late 1980s. 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.) is a short documentary produced by Sealife Productions and the Puget Sound Restoration Fund that 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. Footage from the film was incorporated into PBS's Changing Seas episode Kelp: Hidden Treasure of the Salish Sea.
Both films will be followed by a Q&A with their maker, Florian Graner, Ph.D., Executive Director of Sound Water Stewards and founder of Sealife Productions. Dr. Graner brings a background in marine biology, marine conservation, and science communication to his role leading Sound Water Stewards — an organization with a 35-year history of community engagement and environmental stewardship on Whidbey and Camano Islands.
June 21, 2026 — Lime Kiln Point State Park and the Killer Whales + Resident Orca
7 PM | San Juan Island Grange | $5 donation encouraged
The third evening pairs a beloved local short with one of the most powerful orca documentaries in recent memory.
Lime Kiln Point State Park and the Killer Whales is a documentary celebrating the iconic relationship between Lime Kiln Point — acclaimed as 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, which make up 80% of their diet. The film traces the park's rich natural and human history, from its intertidal zone and underwater kelp forests to the historic lime mining operations that gave the point its name, weaving together the story of the land, the sea, and the endangered community of J, K, and L pod orcas that have made the inland waters of the Salish Sea their home for thousands of years.
Resident Orca (2024, 97 min.) is a Canadian documentary directed by Sarah Sharkey Pearce and Simon Schneider that 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 film follows an unlikely coalition united by a single mission: to bring her home to the Salish Sea. What distinguishes Resident Orca from other orca advocacy films is how it reframes the story not as animal rights but as inherent Indigenous rights — with the Lummi Nation at the center of a fight they regard as both a familial obligation and a matter of deep spiritual and cultural meaning. Resident Orca won Best Documentary at the Miami Film Festival, Best Director at the Whistler Film Festival, and Best Feature Length Documentary at the 2025 Leo Awards.
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.
Marcia was later invited to join the effort to bring Tokitae home to a sea sanctuary in the Salish Sea. She is the author of Pretty Colors – Nice Day, a memoir of her friendship with Tokitae, and Unfathomable, which explores humanity's complex and often destructive relationship with captive orcas.
June 26, 2026 — The Snake and the Whale
7 PM | San Juan Island Library & Lopez Center for Community and the Arts | Free
The series concludes with The Snake and the Whale (2025, 96 min.), directed by six-time Emmy Award winner John Carlos Frey. The film 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, Frey follows the evidence where it leads — and asks the question communities across the Pacific Northwest are wrestling with: what will it take to bring them back?
This screening is presented as part of the Friday Harbor Film Festival's Best of the Fest free monthly screening series, simultaneously at the San Juan Island Library in Friday Harbor and on Lopez Island at various venues in collaboration with the Lopez Island Library.
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.
Admission is free. No donation is requested at this event. FHFF thanks our 2026 Best of the Fest presenting media sponsor CascadePBS and our in-kind presenting sponsor The Journal of the San Juan Islands, bringing free monthly documentary films to San Juan and Lopez islands January through September.
About the Orca Action Month Film Series
The Orca Action Month Film Series is presented by the Stewardship Network of the San Juans, a coalition of private and public conservation-based organizations whose mission is to promote awareness of the Salish Sea ecosystem and our shared responsibility for its preservation. The series is co-sponsored by organizations that have dedicated years — in many cases, decades — to the protection of the Southern Resident killer whales and the ecosystems they depend on:
Friday Harbor Film Festival — San Juan Island's annual documentary film festival, presenting powerful films that entertain, inspire, and enlighten.
San Juan Islands Visitors Bureau — The official travel resource for the San Juan Islands, promoting responsible and meaningful island experiences.
The Whale Museum — Located in Friday Harbor and open since 1979 as the first museum in the country devoted to a species living in the wild, promoting stewardship of whales and the Salish Sea through education and research.
Center for Whale Research — Since 1976, the leading organization monitoring and studying Southern Resident killer whales in their critical habitat, maintaining the only long-term dataset on the population's behavior, health, and social dynamics.
F.O.L.K.S. (Friends of Lime Kiln Society) — A 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to Lime Kiln Point State Park, one of the premier land-based whale-watching sites in the world, drawing over 600,000 visitors from more than 50 countries each year.
Friends of the San Juans — Founded in 1979, working to protect the San Juan Islands and the Salish Sea through education, science, policy, and law, with 1 in 3 San Juan County residents engaged in their work.
All events are free to attend. No tickets or RSVP required.
For more information about the Friday Harbor Film Festival and the Best of the Fest monthly screening series, visit fhff.org. For more information about Orca Action Month and the Stewardship Network of the San Juans, visit stewardshipsanjuans.org.
