TO THE ORCAS, WITH LOVE HEALS THE SOUL

Director Natalie Lucier‘s documentary To The Orcas, With Love, focuses on her relationship with these animals in the waters of British Columbia during her two- month study at OrcaLab.  Recently premiered at the Water Docs Festival in Toronto, Lucier becomes inspired as her love for the orcas improves her relationship with herself and the planet itself.  The documentary shows that wonderful journey she embarks on to discover how truly intelligent and beautiful these animals really are and how the family is the number one priority to them.  Icons such as the late Rob Stewart, David Suzuki, and Alexandra Morton share their stories about the love of orcas and how we should improve our relationship with our environment so that orcas may live in the environment that they belong to.

This documentary goes back in time when orcas were caught in B.C. and brought to Seattle for entertaining aquariums.  A lot of these orcas died because of the mistreatment and the limited space they were given which is why advocates like Ric O’ Barry has rallied for all these aquariums all over the world to be closed.   In addition, we are just dumping so much garbage into the water that the entire biosphere where orcas are part of are becoming affected.  Not to mention that fracking in BC and the proposed pipelines that governments and corporations want to put into these areas are going to be frightfully harmful.  The aspect of climate change should be the most terrifying when it comes to sustaining our love for orcas because the temperatures of the oceans will rise and will yet to see the devastating results of how much of an impact that they will have on these animals let alone ourselves.

To The Orcas, With Love is a must-see because we see how Natalie Lucier was able to live the life that she wanted which restores all hope.    It may have been only for two months or so but you can see how much this experience at OrcaLab has done so much for her soul and her heart.  As she says in the film that when she was on this study, there wasn’t much but there was enough to get her by.  Which begs the question of how much do humans really need to live?  Why do we need so much to get by in our daily lives especially those who live in urban areas?  The courage of Natalie Lucier to be able to do what she wanted and surround herself with those who have a relationship with the orca community is enough to inspire us all.  Not all us of can get the chance to do what we are really passionate about and for many of us, we don’t even know what our passions are.  Her journey to be with orcas was a true meditation retreat and it was one where only Sam Harris or even Dan Harris can dream of.

To be able to hear the orcas communicate with each other and to the people who they know are watching them can do many wonders for the human mind, body and spirit.  They say that the human body is made up of 57-60% water so we can only imagine how the sounds of the orcas vibrate the inside of our bodies and shape us into different forms.  This experience has done so much for someone like Natalie Lucier who was able to get out of the grid for a period of time and allow herself to be transformed into someone different through the sights and sounds of the orcas.   All the stress, anxiety and depression vanishes when you embed yourself in these environments and hope, inspiration and love returns to your psyche.   As Jack Palance says to Billy Crystal in the movie City Slickers, there is that one thing in life that only matters and it is for Billy Crystal to find out.  For Natalie Lucier, she has found that thing which can ultimately change the world and that’s where the change starts.

www.orcamovie.ca