It was November 2025, and it was 38 degrees in the icy waters of a Norwegian fjord, which was warmer than the air. Wearing a protective dry suit, Cody Westheimer did not hesitate to jump in to fulfill his childhood dream: to swim with wild orcas.
That act could have been the climax of his fascination with orcas, also known as killer whales. Instead, it has proved to be the springboard for several orca-related creative projects for the Santa Barbara composer and filmmaker, including a short film, a podcast for children, a related television series and presentations at local schools, among others.
“To My 14 Year Old Self,” a short film featuring footage of his Norwegian expedition, had its world debut on Wednesday at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. It will be screened again at 2:40 p.m. Friday during the Santa Barbara Documentary Shorts program.
Above the Arctic Circle
“These were fish-eating orcas who feast on herring,” Westheimer pointed out. “They are different than some orcas in the Pacific who eat marine mammals.”
During the five-day trip above the Arctic Circle near Burfjord, Norway, Westheimer and fellow adventurers lived on a boat and used Zodiac rafts to motor into fjords in search of killer whale pods. He was outfitted with a high-resolution compact movie camera on a selfie stick that allowed him to tape his reactions.
“The first dive was sort of a gentle, soothing introduction, and we saw small groups of orcas,” he recalled. “We could hear their squeals and clicking, but they were very deep. Then they emerged from the blue depths, and I was transported back to the wonder of my 14-year-old self.”
The second day was “shock and awe,” he said. “We saw dozens of orcas feeding off a huge bait ball of herring. ‘This is just crazy,’ I thought. It was adrenaline-packed.”
His third dive was a far more personal, transformative experience.
“It was mind-blowing. I wasn’t just observing, I was interacting,” he said. “For 20 or 30 minutes, a curious juvenile orca was swimming up to me, blowing bubbles, and at one point ‘bopped’ my camera.”
“Letter to My 14 Year Old Self” Film
The eventful dive with the young orca left him emotional, he recalled.
“It reconnected me to a younger version of myself who was deeply open, emotionally unarmored and unsure whether that sensitivity was something to protect or to hide,” he said. “I wanted to talk directly to him.”
The resulting letter became the narration for his four-minute short film, which is accompanied by music he composed before the trip while imagining being with orcas in the water.
“When I returned, even though I was jet-lagged, I recorded the letter and expanded the score, then put them to video and images,” he said. “In just a couple of days, I submitted it to the film festival.”
A Dream of Orcas
Westheimer was also inspired to share his experiences with local tweens and teens in a talk called “What Loving Orcas Taught Me About Loving Myself: A Story of Courage, Curiosity and Not Outgrowing Your Wonder.”
At a recent multimedia presentation at Santa Barbara Middle School, attended by the entire student body, he revealed that his passion for orcas began when he saw “Free Willy.” The 1993 film is about a young boy who helps an orca escape from a theme park and return to the wild.
Keiko, a captive whale that portrayed Willy in the film, had lived most of his life in a cramped concrete enclosure in Mexico City. The film spurred a global campaign to rehabilitate and return him to the wild near Iceland, where he was first captured.
“The movie changed my life,” said Westheimer, at that time a student at San Marcos High School. “I became obsessed with orcas and even circulated petitions to free captive killer whales. It definitely wasn’t ‘cool,’ but it was sincere. Someday, I thought, it would be awesome to be among them.”
He told the students that the film’s background music had an unforeseen impact on him as a young teen.
“I saved up two weeks’ allowance to buy the soundtrack, primarily for the song by Michael Jackson,” he said, holding up the CD. “But then I discovered the tracks six through 10 were beautiful orchestral music, and I would go to bed listening to them.”
The score was by the revered and prolific Basil Poledouris, who composed more than 50 feature films, including “RoboCop” and “The Blue Lagoon,” and many TV series such as “Lonesome Dove.”
Westheimer had a surprise for the students.
“I was the age that you are now, and I’ve since made a career of composing film and TV music,” he said, “but I never let my dream of orcas die.
“What’s your orca? Find the weird thing that you want to explore. Don’t let anyone get in the way, and don’t worry about how cool you are.”
“Super Pod” Podcast for Kids
Westheimer first saw wild orcas at age 19 in the San Juan Islands, and later on trips to British Columbia with his wife, Julia Marie Newmann, also a composer for film and TV. Their daughter, Malia, was 7 years old when they encountered a pod in the Santa Barbara Channel en route to camp on Santa Cruz Island.
“We just knew we would see them,” he said. “Malia was holding a plush orca, and started singing the orchestra theme to ‘Free Willy.’”
Malia, who turns 10 in April, is now her father’s collaborator on “Super Pod,” a new podcast aimed at children ages 3 to 7.
“We just finished the first episode last week,” said Westheimer, interviewed at his home studio where the podcast was recorded, his short film edited and the music for both composed.
“She’s totally into it and has great director’s comments like, ‘The music should come in here,’ or ‘It needs to be more playful.’”
She is also the voice of the young killer whale named “Kiko,” a character inspired by the juvenile orca that interacted with Westheimer in Norway.
“The idea is to help teach kids life lessons using ocean facts and what I consider to be the most emotionally intelligent creature — the orca,” he said. “We’ve got it pretty dialed in, and have concept art, stickers and a theme song. We want to complete six episodes by spring and develop it into an animated TV series.”