Best of the Fest films for Feb. 5-11

The Friday Harbor Film Festival’s Best of the Fest series presents one feature-length documentary and two short documentary films each week in February. The films are streamed on demand. For the week of Feb. 5 to 11, FHFF is showing Whale Talk, Vala North, and Generations of Sound.

FHFF shared with the Update a preview of each film.

Whale Talk

To understand the language of whales is an ancient dream. So far nobody has managed to crack their code. Biologists finally team up with computer researchers to adapt AI tools to orcas, while also documenting the challenges the orcas are facing. To collect sufficient data for their analysis, the team embarks on an expedition along the pristine coastlines of Northern Canada. With specialized software on board, they follow different groups of the Northern Resident killer whales. While following different orca families along the coast of Canada, the film provides the first window into a new and exciting era of animal communication research, while drawing us closer to an old dream of mankind – decoding their language.

Vala North

In the far northern atolls of Papua New Guinea, scientist chieftain and visionary John Aini resurrects old secret ways and melds them with what he and his fellow chieftains and their people know of the coral reefs they rely on. Vala North is a story of a thin thread of hope in a changing world, hope for coral reefs around these islands, and hope for the communities that rely on them.

Generations of Sound

At Orcalab, a remote land-based research station, on Hanson Island, British Columbia, Canada. Helena Symonds has been listening to the sounds of Orca for over forty years.

Tickets for all three films can be purchased through the FHFF website.

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