RESIDENT ORCA tells the shocking true story of a captive whale’s fight for survival and freedom. After decades of failed attempts to bring her home, an unlikely partnership between Indigenous matriarchs, a billionaire philanthropist, killer whale experts, and the aquarium’s new owner take on the herculean task of freeing Lolita, captured 53 years ago as a child, only to spend the rest of her life performing in the smallest killer whale tank in North America. When Lolita falls ill under troubling circumstances, her advocates are faced with a painful question: is it too late to save her?

From Executive Producers Squil-le-he-le (Raynell Morris) and Tah-Mahs (Ellie Kinley) of Lummi Nation and first-time feature documentary directors, Sarah Sharkey Pearce and Simon Schneider, this intimate and heart-breaking narrative explores our relationship with the natural world through a captive whale and the attempts to return her to her wild family.

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