A Whale, a Submarine and the Sound in Between

Based on true events, this animated short film follows a Cuvier's beaked whale in its natural ocean habitat as sonar from military training drills invade.

My name is Gali Blay and I am an animation filmmaker based in Berlin, Germany. With almost fifteen years of professional experience, including working as a miniature set-maker on Wes Anderson’s Oscar-winning short film The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and his feature film Asteroid City, my own work bridges fiction and reality and investigates the complex political structures that influence our world. In A Whale, a Submarine and the Sound in Between, I question “How far are we willing to go in order to feel safe?” when the effects of our military maritime drills and tactics drive whales to beach themselves at a rate of about 2,000 whales per year worldwide. 

My latest animated short film creatively explores a world rarely seen – the ocean. The ocean makes up 99% of the space where life can develop and is our largest habitat. My short makes  seen the unseen to illustrate the dangerous impact us surface-dwellers can have in our own search for safety. We start in the dark of the ocean, a world that becomes illuminated to us through the clicks and song of our whale: a lush landscape of green plants in white sand and  coral reefs filled with fish and other ocean-life. When the Homeland Security boats’ sonar goes off, it disorients the whale, literally. While we cannot see sonar, echolocating is exactly how the whales see, navigate, and hunt in their world. 

Ever since I was a kid I always felt at home in the ocean, no matter where I was in the world. If I was next to or in the ocean, I felt at home in my heart. Noise pollution is a silent killer and not very many people know this is happening, or when they read about a beached whale they don’t know why it happened. I know that the military wants to keep us safe, but we are putting other living beings at risk. Through the magic of animation and the impact of storytelling, I hope to shed light on the whales’ plight and help people “see” this world through the whale’s eyes. 

I am raising $50,000 to start production, build the sets and characters, cover fees for the team as well as studio and equipment rentals.

I specialize in stop-motion and my award-winning team includes Susanna Jerger and Alice Buechner, who worked with me on Asteroid City and who have accomplished careers working with other pillars in the industry such as Guillermo del Toro, the Wachowski Sisters, and more. Funds will support building the whale, its world under the ocean, and visualizing how the sonar wreaks havoc on its habitat and body. This project is both an artistic and educational endeavor designed for film festival exhibition as well as non-profit and school screenings to spread awareness about this cause.

Please support A Whale, a Submarine and the Sound in Between with a donation! The project is fiscally sponsored by From the Heart Productions, which makes your donation tax-deductible (EIN 95-4445418). To maximize your tax benefit, I am asking for donations of $500, $1000, $5000, and $10,000, but – truly – any amount helps. Donation perks listed below.

Click on the BUTTONS in the top right, or enter your desired amount, to donate by credit card.

Donate through PAYPAL here:

Donation Levels:

$500+            All donations at this level get a personalized photoshop of you in the ocean world posted as your social media shoutout thank you! You also get a link to watch the finished film!

$1000+          All donations at this level get a THANK YOU CREDIT in the finished film in addition to your ocean world social media shoutout and the link to watch the finished film.

$3000+          All donations at this level get an ASSOCIATE PRODUCER CREDIT in the finished film in addition to your ocean world social media shoutout and   the link to watch the finished film.

$10,000+       All donations at this level get an EXECUTIVE PRODUCER CREDIT in the finished film in addition to your ocean world social media shoutout and    the link to watch the finished film.

If you work for a large company, check to see if they’ll MATCH your donation! Many do.

You can check out our fundraising page and make a donation directly here:

We can also receive in-kind donations of food, water, equipment, props, wardrobe…anything to help off-set our production costs. 

And one of the best ways you can help support our project is absolutely FREE! Please share this video, share the link to our campaign on social media. Tell your friends and families to share far and wide and ask people to give as they can. 

Donate by check via snail mail: 

Make the check payable to “From the Heart Productions” and write in memo line “A Whale, a Submarine and the Sound in Between.”

Mail it to:
ATTN: Shirley
For: A Whale, A Submarine and the Sound in Between
From the Heart Productions
1013 Harbor Blvd. #53
Oxnard, CA  93035

A Whale, a Submarine and the Sound in Between is anchored by research and environmental organizations. Join our journey to bring awareness and meaningful change to this tragic situation. THANK YOU!

MEET THE TEAM!

Gali Blay 

Gali was born in New York in 1986, raised in Israel and currently based in Berlin, Germany. She received a BFA degree from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, and a MFA degree (cum laude) in Social Design at Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands. Gali's creative practice is situated in the film sphere. She works in film productions as a model maker and props maker. As an animation director she works in the intersection of documentary storytelling and animation. She researches the in-between world of fiction and reality created by images and designs scenarios to it. Blay uses storytelling in design to tackle complex political structures, and investigates how their power influences different narratives developing in the society. For example, her 2022 collaboration with the Iranian/Canadian artist Leila Zelli, About Dam and Hofit, tells the story of the forbidden friendship between an Israeli and an Iranian whose unexpected encounter dares them to reimagine a friendship against all odds. The film was shown around the world in festivals such as, Spark Animation (Vancouver, Canada) 2022 | PÖFF Shorts - Black Nights Film Festival (Tallin, Estonia) 2022, * distinction in the experimental competition in Animfest (Athens) and more. Gali's work has been exhibited at venues such as, Wall Street gallery, Eindhoven, NL (2018); Tijdelijk museum Bijlmerbajes, Amsterdam, NL (2017); Bogoshorts film festival, Bogota, CO (2017); Jerusalem design week, Jerusalem (2017); Salone Del Mobile, Milan, IT (2017); Fresh paint, Tel Aviv, IL (2014) among others. She has received several fellowships and grants such as a start-up design grant from Stimulerings Funds, A short film grant from NFCT, and the AICF visual artist grant. She is a guest tutor at Design Academy Eindhoven, Master in Social Design. When Gali doesn’t work on her own films, she creates props and miniature sets for films such as Wes Anderson's Asteroid City and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, Luca Guadagnino's Queer, Steffi Niederzoll's Seven Winters in Tehran, Lana Wachowski's The Matrix Resurrections, and more.

More at https://www.galiblay.com/ Follow on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/gali.blay/

Susanna Jerger

With 20 years of professional experience in the field of stop motion animation and miniature construction. Susanna worked as a painter, puppet fabricator and a model maker in films such as, Guillermo del Toro's Oscar-winning animation film Pinocchio; In Wes Anderson’s-Isle of Dogs, The French Dispatch, Asteroid City, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (Oscar-winning short film); in Laika studios- Kubo and the two Strings, Missing Link and more. 

More at https://www.susannajerger.de Follow on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/susannajerger

Alice Buechner

With almost 15 years of professional experience as a sculptor in the film industry. In films such as, Wes Anderson’s - Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle of Dogs, The French Dispatch, and Asteroid City; Wachowski Sisters’s- Cloud Atlas; Paul W. S. Anderson’s- Three Musketeers; Tom Tykwer’s- Babylon Berlin and more. 

More at