Orca

In Progress

As the global human population surges and climate change disrupts animal behavior, conflicts between people and wildlife are becoming more frequent and intense. ORCA is a feature documentary that delves into the heart of one such conflict, which has taken a startling new form. Since 2020, orcas have been attacking boats in the Strait of Gibraltar – a new form of human-wildlife conflict. ORCA follows a group of scientists racing to understand this behavior. As climate change and human expansion disrupt ecosystems, the conflict becomes a lens through which we explore a larger question: how can we find ways to co-exist with the natural world?

The Filmmakers

Whitney Dow is an award-winning filmmaker and educator. He has been producing and directing films that explore culture and identity for almost two decades. His directorial credits include: Two Towns of Jasper, I Sit Where I Want: The Legacy of Brown v. Board of Education, Unfinished Country, When the Drum is Beating and The Big Payback. His producer credits include: Freedom Summer; Banished: How Whites Drove Blacks Out of Town in America, The Undocumented, Toots, Among the Believers and After the Bite. His work has been exhibited at dozens of international film festivals and institutions such as Sundance, Tribeca, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian Institution, and been recognized with a Peabody Award, duPont Award, Emmy nomination, and numerous film festival honors. He teaches narrative theory at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture Preservation and Planning.

Ben Arnon is co-founder of award-winning film and television company, Color Farm Media and also co-founder of its sister 501(c)(3) non-profit entity, Color Farm Impact. Ben has produced acclaimed projects including the documentary film “John Lewis: Good Trouble,” which was nominated for 3 Emmy Awards and won the NAACP Image Award for Best Documentary Film, as well as “The Big Payback,” a critically acclaimed documentary film focused on reparations for Black Americans. Ben also produced “Finding Tamika,” an Audible Original Series that won the prestigious duPont-Columbia Award for Excellence in Journalism as well as a Webby Award and Audible’s True Crime Audio Series of the Year.

Prior to launching Color Farm, Ben has led business development for Yahoo! Music and worked in numerous creative and business roles at Universal Pictures, Universal Music Group, Jersey Films and Scott Rudin Productions.

Originally from White Plains, NY, Ben earned a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture from Emory University in Atlanta. Ben later received an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management in Los Angeles, California. Ben is also an award-winning photographer who served as a Contributing Writer and Photographer for The Huffington Post from 2008 – 2018.

Sam Bisbee is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning, Independent Spirit and BAFTA-nominated producer and founding partner of Park Pictures Features, the feature film division of acclaimed commercial production company Park Pictures. The films Sam has produced have won an Oscar, BAFTA, Independent Spirit Award, Emmy and Peabody. In 2009, Sam produced THE NEW TENANTS which won the Academy Award in 2010 for best Live Action Short. For over a decade Bisbee and Park Pictures have brought 17 films to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival including 2012’s Sloan Award-winner ROBOT AND FRANK (Sony), 2013’s Golden Globe nominated INFINITELY POLAR BEAR (Sony Pictures Classics), 2016’s Independent Spirit Award-winner (Molly Shannon) and four-time nominee OTHER PEOPLE (Netflix), 2018’s Sundance Audience Award-winner THE SENTENCE (HBO) which went on to win the 2019 Primetime Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking, 2020’s Criterion Collection film FAREWELL AMOR (IFC) and DGA award-winner THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS (Sony Pictures Classics), 2023’s BAFTA and BIFA-winner Earth Mama (A24), 2024’s Sundance Festival Favorite Award-winner, Peabody winner and Bafta and Emmy nominated DAUGHTERS (Netflix) and Emmy Nominee AS WE SPEAK (Paramount/MTV), and 2025’s winner of the Sundance Documentary Directing award THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR which has been acquired by Netflix for release in 2025. Other notable films include 2021’s  Peabody and Emmy nominated documentary STORM LAKE (Independent Lens), SXSW Audience Award-winning and Emmy nominated documentary NOT GOING QUIETLY (P.O.V), SXSW Jury Prize-winner and BAFTA-shortlisted GRAND THEFT HAMLET (MUBI).

Sam is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, BAFTA and the Television Academy.