The documentary produced by Terra Mater studios, Orca - Black & White Gold, by Emmy award-winning screenwriter Mark Monroe, will be screened at the Cannes film market
On the occasion of the launch of the film Orca – Black & White Gold in France on May 20 (entry by free registration or accreditation), One Voice is joining forces with the impact campaign for this documentary film, whose team supports the French animal rights organization’s long-term work for the orcas in the tanks of Antibes.
What struck the filmmaker in particular about One Voice’s tireless work was their previously unrivalled success in blocking the departure of this family to another dolphinarium (as early as 2020 in China, then more recently just a few months ago in Japan), to enable the orcas exhibited and trained at Marineland to discover life in a marine sanctuary, as close as possible to a life worth living, after having known only captivity and the repeated deaths of their loved ones in the tanks.
Today, Terra Mater Studios announces its new docu-thriller Orca – Black & White Gold from Emmy Award-winning screenwriter Mark Monroe (The Dissident; The Cove). The film marks the debut of Terra Mater producer Sarah Nörenberg as a filmmaker. Orca – Black & White Gold will screen next week at the Marché du Film during the Cannes Film Festival, after winning several festival awards, including Best Film at the Jackson Wild Media Awards, and the HP Social Impact Award at the Blue Water Film Festival.
Orca – Black & White Gold offers an unprecedented look at the international trade in endangered orcas, with unprecedented access to activists, former orca trainers and the captors themselves. With a unique 360-degree perspective and access to the mafia businessman behind this multimillion-dollar global trade, this gripping and topical film shows how the export of an American business model is influencing the illegal trade in endangered wild killer whales on every continent.
Screenwriter Mark Monroe won the Emmy for Best Writing for a Non-Fiction Program in 2022 for Lucy and Desi, and was nominated for a BAFTA in 2021 for the documentary The Dissident. Monroe also wrote the Oscar-winning films The Cove and Icarus. Sarah Nörenberg, from Terra Mater, is known for Yours in Freedom, Bill Baird, Tarzan and Sea of Shadows. Composer Sonya Belousova created the original score for Orca and is known for Netflix’s The Witcher and One Piece.
Terra Mater Studios is implementing a hybrid strategy to maximize the film’s distribution and reach audiences worldwide. The studio is actively interested in partnerships with distributors, while retaining educational rights for private and virtual events, with organizations such as One Voice, to share the film with audiences worldwide.
To release captured orcas into marine sanctuaries, Terra Mater Studios actively works with organizations such as The Earth Island Institute, which was responsible for the release of Keiko, the star orca of Free Willy.
Many orcas are still in captivity around the world, making this film an urgent call to action for the public to join the campaign against this trade and help save these animals from a life of forced breeding and captivity. Currently, the world’s only family of orcas in captivity lives in Antibes, France, and is threatened with being sent to another marine park. One Voice has led a successful campaign to ban the orcas’ relocation until an independent expert assessment has been carried out.
“I made this film after realizing that even 31 years after Free Willy and 11 years after Blackfish, we still have just as many orcas in captivity around the world. The market is simply moving from West to East. ORCA – BLACK & WHITE GOLD shines a spotlight on the realities of orca capture and captivity in the Far East, continuing to rally public support for the rejection of a morally bankrupt international market. The commercial value of orcas (originally around $10 million per animal) only increased after the Russian trade was seized. This business of displaying marine mammals for show began in the West with SeaWorld and is still active today. We have a moral duty, as a society and as a role model for the children who visit these parks, to pass on an education based on ethics and allow these sentient and intelligent beings to reach marine sanctuaries whenever possible.”
About Orca – Black & White Gold
Chronicling the capture and release of 100 orcas and belugas in the Russian Far East and their rescue from a tragic fate in one of China’s SeaWorld-inspired aquariums, the film follows the captured animals’ journey through urban Russia, the frozen Kamchatka Peninsula in the Sea of Okhotsk, and the thriving Chinese marine park industry. While investigating the marine animal entertainment industry that emerged in the West decades ago, Orca – Black & White Gold documents the ongoing battle between a network of Russian businessmen, mobsters, orca capturers and bureaucrats who now run the global captivity trade, and the formidable resistance of journalists and activists who take great personal risks to protect the animals.
The outcome will determine whether the animals can survive the damage done to their population by the global marine park industry and spend the rest of their lives in a coastal sanctuary – or whether the fate of this threatened population is already sealed.
Notes on the film’s impact
- ORCA – BLACK & WHITE GOLD is the latest in a series of films that have raised public awareness of the plight of orcas in captivity. But even 31 years after Free Willy and 11 years after Blackfish, there are still just as many orcas in captivity around the world. The market has simply shifted from West to East. ORCA – BLACK & WHITE GOLD shines a spotlight on the realities of orca capture and captivity in the Far East, continuing to rally the public to reject an unethical international market.
- Today, 22 orcas are in captivity in China. All were captured in the wild by the capture team featured in ORCA – BLACK & WHITE GOLD, or were born to these captive orcas.
About Terra Mater Studios
Terra Mater Studios is a Red Bull subsidiary based in Vienna, Austria, with an additional office in Berlin. In 2024, the company was ranked by Realscreen as one of the world’s top 10 producers of factual films. Terra Mater Studios produces documentaries, fiction, factual programming, formats, digital content, media labs and much more. Terra Mater is committed to the highest production values of visual excellence, innovative technology and powerful storytelling. The company’s diverse portfolio includes over 300 hours, rewarded with more than 450 international film festival awards and over 1200 nominations. Ecological production guidelines are applied to all projects.
In the tradition of its feature-length documentaries – including THE IVORY GAME (Netflix Original, Oscar-nominated) and SEA OF SHADOWS (National Geographic Documentary Films, 2019, Sundance Audience Award), for which Leonardo DiCaprio is executive producer – Terra Mater Studios places great importance on a powerful story that resonates more deeply with audiences.
Project credits:
Directed by : Sarah Nörenberg
Producted by : Walter Köhler, Sarah Nörenberg, Michael Frenschkowski
Executive producers : Laura Nix, Dinah Czezik-Müller
Written by : Mark Monroe