Bleecker Street has just released the trailer for their upcoming film, The Loneliest Whale: The Search for 52. The documentary seeks to find the mysterious whale whose strange song has captivated scientists and whale-lovers for decades.
First heard in 1989, the whale’s call is pitched at 52 Hertz, a frequency unrecognized by other whales, leading it to be dubbed “the loneliest whale in the world.” The film examines the global sensation and mythos that has built up around this whale, placing it in the context of how whaling and shipping have impacted whale populations, as well as the rise of the “Save the Whales” movement in the 1970s. Most excitingly, the filmmakers set out to track down the unusual whale, which has never been seen before.
The project is directed by Joshua Zeman whose previous documentaries include the hit Netflix series, The Sons of Sam: Descent Into Darkness, as well as the critically-acclaimed true crime documentary, Cropsey. Zeman is producing, along with Jonathan Shukat, with Caitlin Colford co-producing. Executive producers include Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Davisson, Lucy Sumner, Adrian Grenier, Jim Jacobsen, Maria Bertrand, Gabriel Napora, Yas Taalat, Yipeng Ben Lu, Jeffrey Sobrato, Nicole Shipley, Jeff Rice, Brian Devine, and Evan Krauss.
Funded in part through a Kickstarter campaign Zeman and Grenier launched in 2015, the film is clearly a passion project. “I found all these people, all across the world who were so inspired by this story,” Zeman told Collider shortly before the Kickstarter launched. “They all wanted to reach out and to connect about this story. That’s really what got me into it.”
The Loneliest Whale surfaces in theaters July 9th, and will be available on demand July 16th. Check out the new trailer below:
Here’s the official synopsis:
THE LONELIEST WHALE: THE SEARCH FOR 52 is a cinematic quest to find the “52 Hertz Whale,” which scientists believe has spent its entire life in solitude calling out at a frequency that is different from any other whale. As the film embarks on this engrossing journey, audiences will explore what this whale’s lonely plight can teach us — not just about our changing relationship to the oceans, but to each other. This is the only film that set out in search of 52.
Source: https://collider.com/
