Raina Yang, Director, Writer, Editor, Producer

Sloan Grant(s) Received: 2024, Columbia University, Production Award

Project Type: Short

Genre: Drama

Length: 19 minutes

Field of Science: Biology

Stage: Sales and Distribution

Synopsis: 

When marine biologist Yiling arrives in a remote Newfoundland village to study a repeatedly stranded humpback whale, she discovers the creature has already been dragged back into the sea by well-meaning locals. As she stays with young Sammy and his grandfather, Yiling clashes with the community’s efforts, urging them to consider the quiet suffering they may be prolonging. But in facing their resistance, she’s pulled into the tide of her own past—a fisherman father lost to the ocean, an unspoken grief, and a childhood left behind on the shores of southern China. In this place far from home, Yiling must confront the weight of her own guilt and finally say goodbye—not just to the whale, but to the ghosts she’s been trying to run away from for far too long.