A Whale of a Tale
The miraculous discovery of a whale bone during the excavation of a new subway line in downtown Toronto during the 1980s set the city all aflutter. The bone found in a landfill about 20 meters below the surface did not belong there. There existed no recorded history of whales ever having made it to the city on Lake Ontario. Could it be that the bone was pre-historic? Would it re-write the history of the Great Lakes? Did the greatest beast ever to live on earth swim in the shadows of the city? Was there a pre-historic ocean beneath the city? What other mysteries might the bone hold? It was difficult to tell who was more excited, the media, the general public or the scientific community. The story died down and the whalebone disappeared into a drawer into the basement of the Royal Ontario Museum. Until Now! Until Now!
From small bones do wonderful tales grow; Peter Howell/Toronto Star.
We've all been had. But never with as much zest and imagination - Jim Bawden/Starweek
An appropriate turn of events for a director who often blurs the boundary between feature and non-fiction filmmaking; Jason Anderson/Eye Weekly
The film works as both a mystery tale and an absurdist documentary; Andrew Ryan/Globe and Mail
Out-discovers the Discovery Channel; Jim Slotek/Toronto Sun.
