January 8-10, 2010
LUNA was broadcast on Finnish television (YLE TV1). Thanks for the wonderful response!
December 25, 2009
“LUNA: L’orque qui aimait les Hommes” is broadcast in Switzerland on public television, TSR.
November 15, 2009
A one-hour French-language version of SAVING LUNA called “LUNA: L’orque qui aimait les Hommes” is broadcast on national television in France, on France 2.
October 17, 2009
Suzanne travels to Honolulu, Hawaii, for our first beach screening: SAVING LUNA is seen on a giant screen by an estimated 2000 people on Waikiki Beach, as part of the Hawaii International Film Festival.
September 28, 2009
Suzanne and Mike travel to Jackson, Wyoming, for the legendary Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival.
September 15, 2009
SAVING LUNA is nominated for the prestigious JAPAN PRIZE, an award for excellence in educational media.
August, 2009
SAVING LUNA screens at the Japan Wildlife Film Festival. At the end of the festival, the little film about the little orca is awarded the Best Entertainment Award.
August, 2009
SAVING LUNA screens at an outdoor plaza in the Land of the Panda - Sichuan, China, at the China Animal and Nature Film Festival. SAVING LUNA is awarded the festival’s grand prize, the Golden Panda Cup award for best of the festival.
July 30, 2009
SAVING LUNA screens at the Durban International Film Festival in South Africa. At the end of the festival, LUNA is awarded the Audience Choice Award for Best Film. Thank you, Durban!
June 15, 2009
SAVING LUNA nominated for Best of Festival and Best Theatrical Film at the BLUE Ocean Film Festival! Visit www.blueoceanfilmfestival.org for more information.
July 10, 2009
Mike travels to Newcastle, Australia, to present SAVING LUNA at the huge Minding Animals conference.
June 7, 2009
Suzanne travels to Banff, AB, for the Banff World Television Awards. SAVING LUNA has been nominated for a prestigious Rockie Award. And it’s still snowing in Calgary/ Banff. Snow in June?
May 16, 2009
Suzanne leaves Cannes early to fly to Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. SAVING LUNA screens at the Festival Internacional de Cine Ecologico de Canarias. The audience response is wonderful – this is confirmed at the end of the festival when SAVING LUNA wins the audience award, the Paco Alfonso Special Prize of the Audience.
May 14-22, 2009
Suzanne and Michael attend the Cannes Marche du Film in France. Mike also writes a blog for Smithsonian about the legendary Cannes Film Festival. Click here to read the blog.
April 26, 2009
Mike flies to Salem, OR, to attend the Salem Film Festival.
April 25, 2009
Suzanne flies to Winston-Salem, NC, to attend the River Run Film Festival. SAVING LUNA screens twice, and the second screening is sold out! The swag bag is great – filled with yummy snacks, Moravian cookies, and Hanes underwear and socks!
April 22, 2009
Suzanne travels to Cochrane, AB, where SAVING LUNA screens to a sold-out crowd on Earth Day. Thanks to the Chinook Film Group for organizing the event. It’s snowing in Cochrane today – snow in late April?
April 16-19, 2009
Mike is in New Haven, CT, to attend the inaugural Environmental Film Festival at Yale. The festival hosts two successful screenings of LUNA. The following week, SAVING LUNA is awarded the Audience Choice Award. It’s the 20th award for LUNA.
April 5, 2009
SAVING LUNA has its broadcast premiere in Canada on CBC Newsworld’s The Lens.
March 28, 2009Mike and Suzanne traveled to Beverly Hills for the 23rd annual Genesis Awards, presented by The Humane Society of the United States! SAVING LUNA was nominated for the Best Feature Film award.
Read more.
February 25, 2009
SAVING LUNA is held over at the AMC Interchange 30 Theatre for a third week. Now showing until March 5.
January 30, 2009
SAVING LUNA is greeted in Ottawa by a great turnout opening weekend at the ByTowne Cinema.
January 16, 2009
SAVING LUNA will open at the fabulous Star Cinema in Sidney. It’s our hometown premiere, and we’re thrilled about the venue. Michael will be in attendance at all opening weekend screenings.
January 16, 2009
Suzanne will catch a flight from Victoria to Bucharest, Romania, where SAVING LUNA has been invited to screen at Eastern Europe’s first environmental film festival, Green Planet Blues. The festival will be held in the Carpathian mountain resort town of Sinaia, about 90 minutes north of Bucharest.
January 9, 2009
SAVING LUNA screens at the Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival in Nevada City, CA.
December 26, 2008
Waterloo, Ontario welcomes Luna to the big screen. Suzanne flies the red-eye to Toronto on stormy Christmas night, to attend the opening week screenings of SAVING LUNA at the Princess Cinema in Waterloo. Colin Hunter from The Record attends the film, and reviews SAVING LUNA: “It’s fantastic. Go see it.” (full review here).
December 19, 2008
SAVING LUNA opens at the Winnipeg Cinematheque. Michael travels to Winnipeg to attend the opening weekend screenings. Despite the bitterly cold weather, Winnipeggers come out to see LUNA. Word-of-mouth spreads like a prairie windstorm and the following weekend, the theatre is packed.
December 5, 2008
SAVING LUNA has its world theatrical premiere in Vancouver, at The Ridge Theatre. The Vancouver Sun’s renowned film critic, Katherine Monk, gives SAVING LUNA four stars (full review here). During our opening week (Dec 5-11) we are the highest-grossing film in Canada on a per-theatre basis. Thank you, Vancouver! The film is held over for two more weeks.
November 15, 2008
SAVING LUNA is awarded an honorable mention from the Columbus International Film and Video Festival.
November 1, 2008
SAVING LUNA opens the Banff Mountain Film Festival, held at the Banff Centre in this lovely mountain paradise. Suzanne attends the screening; it’s a great crowd, with lots of children and plenty of Luna fans.
At the end of the festival, SAVING LUNA is given a Special Jury Award. The jury said: “Sometimes a filmmaker plans a short trip to shoot a subject that interests them, then finds that it so captures their hearts that they devote a substantial part of their lives to it. An engaging and heartfelt story well-told.”
October 28, 2008
The International Documentary Association (IDA) announces the nominees for its annual awards. SAVING LUNA is a Finalist for the IDA Pare Lorentz Award. The winner will be announced in LA on December 5.
October 22-26, 2008
SAVING LUNA screens at the Tokyo International Film Festival. Suzanne is on the second leg of her around-the-world tour with Luna, and attends both the festival screenings, as well as a special corporate screening, held at the request of one of the festival’s corporate donors. The film is very well-received in Japan.
Travel support provided by PromArt, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Canada.
October 22, 2008
SAVING LUNA wins two “Green Oscar” Panda awards at the prestigious Wildscreen Festival in Bristol, England. Our Pandas are Best People and Animals, and Best Script. Mike was planning to attend – he even had an airline ticket – but because our Canadian theatrical release is just around the corner, Mike has had to cancel all travel.
October 15, 2008
Suzanne flies from Victoria to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates for the Middle Eastern premiere of SAVING LUNA at the Middle East International Film Festival. By the time Suzanne arrives, the Hollywood stars have gone – Jane Fonda, Susan Sarandon, Meg Ryan, Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith were just here – but we have two very successful screenings of SAVING LUNA anyway. On the closing night, we’re thrilled to learn that we’ve won the prestigious Black Pearl Audience Choice Award! Abu Dhabi loves Luna. Next stop: Japan.
September 27, 2008
SAVING LUNA screens to an enthusiastic crowd at the Calgary International Film Festival, as the VW Family Gala. Suzanne Chisholm in attendance.
June 7-8, 2008
SAVING LUNA screens at the Seattle International Film Festival. Suzanne and Mike attend both screenings, which are packed, and receive standing ovations both times. Mike gives a Luna presentation at the Seattle Aquarium on June 7, as part of the Aquarium's "World Ocean Day" celebration.
May 31, 2008
Manitoba premiere of SAVING LUNA at the Winnipeg International Film Festival.
May 25-26, 2008
SAVING LUNA has its Colorado premiere at Mountainfilm in Telluride. After a sold-out screening on Sunday evening, the festival adds an encore screening, which also sells out. Michael attends both screenings.
May 24, 2008
At the 10th Annual Leo Awards gala ceremony, SAVING LUNA wins the prize for Best Documentary (Nature/ Environment/ Adventure/ Science/ Technology). Unfortunately, Suzanne has just returned home from France, and Mike is in Colorado, so we miss the event. The Leo Award is the twelfth award for SAVING LUNA.
May 19, 2008
SAVING LUNA has its Market Premiere at the Marché du Film, the market component of the Cannes Film Festival. SAVING LUNA was one of ten Canadian feature films selected by Telefilm Canada (and the only documentary) as part of the “Perspective Canada Cannes” program. Suzanne and Michael attend the screenings and the Cannes Film Festival. Travel support provided by BC Film’s Passport to Markets.
May 15-16, 2008
SAVING LUNA screens at the International Wildlife Film Festival in Missoula, Montana. Mike and David attend both screenings. Mike is a participant on two panels. David attends the awards ceremony, to pick up the prize for Best Storyline.
May 11-15, 2008
Suzanne attends the Irish Dolphins conference in Dingle, Ireland, to talk about Luna, and to start developing Mountainside Films’ next documentary, about solitary sociable dolphins. She films Fungie the lone dolphin in Dingle, meets and interviews several solitary dolphin experts including Dr. Monika Wilke, Margaux Dodds from Marine Connection, representatives of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, and Dr. Horace Dobbs. Suzanne then travels to County Clare with world-renowned solitary dolphin expert, Dr. Toni Frohoff and Canadian author Leah Lemieux, to film another solitary dolphin, Dusty/ Marra, with longtime dolphin swimmer Ute Margreff.
May 11, 2008
SAVING LUNA screens as the Closing Night film at the brand-new Projecting Change Film Festival in Vancouver, BC. Mike attends the screening. The film wins Best Canadian Film.
April 25, 2008
SAVING LUNA screens again in Hamilton, Bermuda as part of the Bermuda International Film Festival’s screening series. Bermuda has been good to our film: another sold-out screening!
April 19, 2008
SAVING LUNA screens at WorldFest Houston International Film Festival, and wins a Platinum Remi award for Best Nature and Wildlife Film. Suzanne attends the screening and the awards ceremony with Erica Parfit Hudgeons.
April 12-16, 2008
SAVING LUNA has its Florida premiere at the Palm Beach International Film Festival. Suzanne attends both screenings, and is a participant on a producers' panel. SAVING LUNA is awarded a Special Jury Prize, but Suzanne is already on her way to Houston for the film’s Texas premiere, so misses the awards ceremony.
April 2-4, 2008
SAVING LUNA screens at the Bermuda International Film Festival, in Hamilton, Bermuda. SAVING LUNA wins a prize for Best Documentary. We are the runner-ups for the Audience Award.
March 16 , 2008
SAVING LUNA screens at the Smithsonian’s Natural Museum of Natural History, as part of the DC Environmental Film Festival. Suzanne and Mike attend the screening and receive a standing ovation. Thank you, DC!
March 10-17 , 2008
SAVING LUNA screens at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival in Thessaloniki, Greece. Suzanne attends the festival, with the generous assistance of Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. SAVING LUNA screens three times at the festival, and Suzanne is a panelist on the festival’s “Approaching Nature” panel. It's a fabulous festival in a fabulous place.
March 7 , 2008
SAVING LUNA screens as the Opening Film at the Our Island, Our World Film Festival on Saltspring Island, BC. Suzanne and Mike attend the festival, and receive a warm welcome and a standing ovation from the festival.
March 3-8 , 2008
SAVING LUNA has its Australia premiere and wins “Best Environmental Film” at the Byron Bay Film Festival in Byron Bay. David Parfit travels to Australia to represent Mountainside Films at the festival, and to check out the surfing.
February 20-22, 2008
SAVING LUNA is awarded the inaugural Indie Award for Best Documentary, from the Canadian Film and Television Production Association. Suzanne travels to Ottawa to attend the CFTPA awards ceremony.
February 10, 2008
SAVING LUNA is nominated for three awards at the upcoming Byron Bay Film Festival in Byron Bay, NSW, Australia: Best Documentary, Best Environmental Film, and Best Film. SAVING LUNA will have its Australian premiere at the Byron Bay Film Festival on Monday, March 3.
February 9, 2008
SAVING LUNA has its fourth Santa Barbara screening, at the Riviera Theater, as part of the best of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
February 8, 2008
SAVING LUNA screens at the Powell River Film Festival, to an enthusiastic crowd of 600 people.
February 3, 2008
SAVING LUNA wins the Audience Choice, Best Feature, at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
February 3, 2008
SAVING LUNA wins the Audience Award at the San Francisco Ocean Film Festival.
February 3, 2008
SAVING LUNA screens at the Victoria Film Festival to a sold-out audience and a standing ovation. A second screening is held on February 5.
February 2, 2008
SAVING LUNA screens at the San Francisco Ocean Film Festival, to a sold-out crowd of 400 people. Suzanne and Michael receive a standing ovation. Thank you, San Francisco!
January 26, 2008
SAVING LUNA has its California premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. After a successful first screening, the festival adds an extra screening; subsequent shows are held on January 28 and January 29. Suzanne and Michael attend all three screenings.
January 14, 2008
SAVING LUNA is nominated for an Indie Award for Best Documentary by the Canadian Film and Television Production Association.
December, 2007
SAVING LUNA screens at the Guangzhou International Documentary Festival in Guangzhou, China.
November, 2007
Suzanne is invited by the Guangzhou International Documentary Festival to attend Producer Day, December 2, 2007, in Guangzhou, China
October 10, 2007
SAVING LUNA is named one of the “Best of the Vancouver International Film Festival” and is invited to screen again at the VanCity Theatre, on Sunday, October 14 at 7:00 PM.
October 9, 2007
SAVING LUNA plays again at the Vancouver International Film Festival at another sold-out show.
October 6, 2007
SAVING LUNA has its premiere at a sold-out show at the Vancouver International Film Festival. SAVING LUNA is nominated for the “Best Canadian Documentary Award.”
October 1-5, 2007
Suzanne, Michael and David attend the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival, where SAVING LUNA wins the “Best People and Animals Award.”
September 9, 2007
Mountainside Films is pleased to announce the premiere of SAVING LUNA at the Vancouver International Film Festival on Saturday, October 6, 1:30 PM at the Pacific Cinematheque, Vancouver. There will be an encore screening on Tuesday, October 9 at 6:00 PM at the Empire Granville 7 Theatres in Vancouver.
July 16, 2007
SAVING LUNA is selected as a Finalist at Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival, in the Best People and Animals category. SAVING LUNA will be screened at the festival in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in early October.
April 18-28, 2007
Suzanne and Mike attend Hot Docs documentary film festival in Toronto and pitch SAVING LUNA to international broadcasters at the Toronto Documentary Forum. Our feature-length documentary, SAVING LUNA, was one of 30 international projects selected for the Toronto Documentary Forum .
March 31, 2007
Mountainside Films is the recipient of completion funds from Telefilm Canada’s Theatrical Documentary Program (Telefilm news release ). This funding will enable us to produce a theatrical version of SAVING LUNA. SAVING LUNA was one of only six documentaries from across Canada to be selected for funding through this program.
March 22, 2007
SAVING LUNA is selected as one of six Canadian pitch projects for the Toronto Documentary Forum to be held in Toronto on April 25-26.
December, 2006
Suzanne and Mike attend the Whistler Film Festival in Whistler, BC.
November, 2006
David Parfit starts full-time work for Mountainside Films as our technical supervisor and sound recordist.
November 10-12, 2006
Mike attends the American Cetacean Society’s 10th International Whales Without Borders conference in Ventura, California, where he presents a talk about Luna.
October, 2006
Suzanne does a series of Luna slide shows and video presentations to high school students at Prem Tinsulanonda International School in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
September 10, 2006
Mike does a film presentation and talk about Luna at the Stonington Opera House in Stonington, Maine.
August 8, 2006
Suzanne does a video presentation about Luna at OrcaNetwork’s Penn Cove Capture Commemoration, Whidbey Island, WA.
June 17, 2006
Suzanne does a video presentation called “Luna’s Life in Nootka Sound” for the Salish Sea Orca Symposium at the Whale Museum, Friday Harbor, WA.
March 15, 2006
Mike does a video presentation to the American Cetacean Society’s Puget Sound chapter in Seattle.
December, 2005
CBC Newsworld commissions Mountainside Films to produce SAVING LUNA, a documentary about Luna, the lone orca of Nootka Sound. Other participating broadcasters are Aboriginal Peoples Television Network and Knowledge Network.
December 10, 2005
Suzanne speaks at a workshop, “Research and Management of Solitary Sociable Odontocetes” held at the Society for Marine Mammalogy’s 16th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals in San Diego, California.
© 2010 Mountainside Films Ltd.
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