ORCA - BLACK & WHITE GOLD is a moving feature documentary exposing the mafia-style industry licensed by the Russian government to brutally capture, hold, and sell one of nature’s most incredible species.

Activists rally to free 100 orcas and belugas from the notorious Russian “whale jail” before they’re sold to Chinese marine parks. While the SeaWorld business model of exploiting “killer whales” for profit in captivity is fading in the West, it is on a meteoric rise across Asia. Tens of millions of dollars are on offer for captive cetaceans, and young orcas are the coveted crown jewel of several hundred marine parks already under construction across China.

In neighboring Russia, a battle is brewing between businessmen, mobsters, orca catchers, and bureaucrats as they face formidable resistance from journalists and activists taking great personal risks to fight for the freedom of an endangered species.

When a truth-seeking investigative journalist uncovers the illicit Russian orca trade to a billion-dollar market in China, fearless activists issue a call to action. The international outcry forces the Kremlin to free over 100 wild-caught orcas and belugas from the infamous “whale jail” facility where they are held captive before their sale to Chinese aquariums.

A ragtag team of orca catchers is paid by the government to set them free, launching a dangerous release operation over a thousand miles long, while a former orca trainer goes undercover in China to reveal the heartbreaking truth about life for these highly intelligent animals living in captivity. With unprecedented access to the activists and journalists who have formed a resistance to protect the kings of the ocean, the film also captures the network of businessmen, orca catchers and bureaucrats who drive the global captivity trade, desperately trying to preserve their profit derived from a brutal and exploitative market.

There’s a new insatiable appetite for one of the most magnificent animals in the wild. While in the West, SeaWorld’s business model of exploiting ‘killer whales’ for profit in captivity faces widespread public shaming, global demand in the Far East is exploding. China is building several hundred several hundred aquariums throughout its provinces — and they want orcas to play a starring role. The demand for these endangered animals is worth a staggering amount of money— tens of millions of dollars, and the new pipeline for this illicit captivity trade is in Russia.