The International Elephant Film Festival Brings Conservation to a Wider Audience
Growing Audience for Conservation
If you are a fan of elephants and would like to learn more about the topic of conservation, the International Elephant Film Festival will feature documentaries starring rescued African elephants. This year’s festival will feature films about the lives of Naledi, the Baby Elephant, Paseka and other members of the Abu herd. All of these films are set against the tragic backdrop of elephant poaching in Africa. The movies will bring these incredible animals to a wider audience.
Naledi: A Baby Elephant’s Tale
The story follows a baby elephant born into a wilderness rescue camp. After a month, he becomes orphaned and the keepers work hard to be surrogate mothers for the young elephant. But how will they be able to care for the baby? What will happen when he’s unable to care for himself? This book is sure to leave you wanting to see more. You’ll love this charming story, full of wit and heart-warming moments.
As a baby elephant, Naledi is born into an orphaned mother on a savannah ranch. In this movie, she grows up with her keepers and goes through trials and tribulations, as does any other baby elephant. While Naledi is the main focus of the film, the other half explores the dwindling elephant population and Paul Allen’s philanthropic project to count all the elephants in Africa. The Great Elephant Census is full of airplanes, but the animals are worth the ride.
War of Space
The new short documentary War of Space, produced by the Mara Elephant Project, focuses on the crisis of human-elephant conflict in the Mara ecosystem. The Mara Elephant Project uses cutting-edge technologies to tackle this crisis, including flying drones and chili fence assembly. The film features BBC presenter Saba Douglas-Hamilton, who is also the special projects director for Save The Elephants. Other notables who appear in the film include MEP CEO Marc Goss, Wildlife Direct CEO Paula Kahumbu, Kenya Wildlife Service Area Chief Joseph Nabala, and CITES secretary-general John Scanlon.
This is an incredibly powerful film, which succeeds as an act of mourning. Van Sant enacts this with nonprofessional actors at a newly closed high school in Portland, Oregon. The result is a moving piece of art that captures a sense of intimacy that may seem impossible to achieve with other films. Though Van Sant’s filmmaking style is detached and distant, he often lingers on the smallest visual details.
Naledi: Every Elephant Counts
In the film, a young elephant named Naledi is born to an orphaned mother on an African savannah ranch. As she grows up, she faces numerous trials. Naledi is only half of the movie, the other half covers the dwindling elephant population and Paul Allen’s philanthropic project to count all elephants. The Great Elephant Census is a major undertaking, and the film features airplanes and other vehicles to count all elephants.
Three documentaries filmed in the Abu Camp were honored with first prizes at the 2016 International Elephant Film Festival. The winners were announced on World Wildlife Day at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. Naledi: Every Elephant Counts, Paseka the Easter Elephant, and Minds of Giants received the People & Animals category winners. The documentary, directed by Ben Bowie, was also nominated for an Emmy. Bowie is the co-founder of Bigger Bang, an award-winning production company that specializes in high-end factual content. His credits include numerous hours of television and film programming for PBS, Discovery, and other networks.
Walking with Elephants
The upcoming film “Walking with Elephants” is the culmination of a three-part mini-series produced by October Films for Channel 4 UK. The film follows a young explorer and conservationist as he takes on a journey with the elephants on their annual migration. This moving film reveals the dangers and abuse that these amazing animals face in their daily lives. Ultimately, it reveals the importance of preserving the elephant population.
“Walking with Elephants” traces the migration route of elephants from the Kalahari Desert to the Okavango Delta. The film is narrated by Academy Award nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor, who is also the director of “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.” Among other sound effects, the film features a chorus of species and trumpet calls. “Walking with Elephants” provides a rare look at the elephant’s plight and how it affects the lives of the inhabitants of the dry-season refuge.
Reteti Elephant Sanctuary
Reteti Elephant Sanctuary, a community-owned project in Kenya, is a sanctuary for orphaned elephants, where keepers nurture the animals and change human attitudes toward them. As Africa’s first female elephant keepers, the center’s work is as much about people as it is about elephants. The films in the festival’s first year showcase the emotional and spiritual connection between keepers and elephants.
The festival’s theme is “The Power of Story.” The films showcase the stories of the animals and their keepers, who are indigenous and committed to changing the way people see wild African elephants. As the festival’s opening night festivities were held in Nairobi, world diplomats and media representatives were in attendance. The filmmakers also showcased their own stories, and unveiled the winner and finalists films. The winners will be shown locally and broadcast around the world.
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