Victoria filmmakers champion elephants
Millions of people in 50 countries support initiative inspired by soon-to-be released documentary
Six years after Victoria filmmaker Patricia Sims and co-director Michael Clark began documenting the plight of endangered Asian elephants in Thailand, World Elephant Day — the global initiative inspired by their feature-length documentary — has taken on a life of its own.
Supported by dozens of wildlife organizations and millions of participants in 50 countries, this Friday’s World Elephant Day aims to spread awareness about threats — such as poaching and habitat loss — faced by elephants. Sims created the event with the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation of Thailand.
World Elephant Day events in East Hampton, N.Y., in which Sims will be involved include a Friday night fundraiser for Veterinarians International’s elephant care program. Honorary guest is Christie Brinkley, the model and outspoken elephant conservation advocate. Richard Lair, the Asian elephant conservationist featured in Sims’s film, When Elephants Were Young, is flying in from Thailand to receive a lifetime achievement award for his work with Asian elephants.
“For whatever reason, World Elephant Day has sequestered itself in the Hamptons,” Sims said with a laugh. She will be joined by Lair and Veterinarians International founder Scarlett Magda at a Sunday screening.
The World Elephant Day campaign is managed by World Elephant Society, the non-profit Sims co-founded last November. Celebrity supporters include the film’s narrator and elephant advocate William Shatner, U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her family, Jane Goodall, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ricky Gervais, Richard Branson and Jessica Chastain.
Friday also marks the worldwide release of When Elephants Were Young, which focuses on the controversial elephant business through the story of a young Bangkok street beggar and his elephant. The film will be screened locally at Cinecenta this weekend. Clark, the film’s Victoria-based cinematographer, editor and music supervisor, will be at the 7 p.m. showings on Friday and Saturday for a Q&A session.
While When Elephants Were Young is being released theatrically in 15 theatres in the U.S., its hometown Cinecenta screenings is the film’s sole Canadian theatrical release.
“I do feel fortunate that we’re getting so much attention in the U.S.,” Sims said. “And I was so happy it’s playing at Cinecenta, which has a big outreach.”
When Elephants Were Young will be available for viewing in 60 countries, including through iTunes and Vimeo-on-Demand, and through Google, Amazon and DISH in the U.S., with proceeds supporting World Elephant Day.
The filmmakers’ goal, Sims said, was to generate awareness and educate viewers about the need to protect Asian and African elephants and to help “create a lasting positive impact” for wild elephant populations.
She said she was excited that Brinkley, whose activism has centred on the African ivory trade, was helping to bring the plight of Asian elephants into sharper focus.
According to World Elephant Day research, about 33,000 African elephants are killed each year to supply the illegal ivory trade, with as few as 400,000 African elephants remaining.
“We’ve put so much focus on the African and ivory issue for the past five years, which has of course been necessary, but Asian elephants are far more endangered, and the main issues for them are about loss of habitat, mistreatment and [unethical] elephant tourism practices,” Sims said.
Her documentary presents positive solutions, including efforts by conservationists to return elephants to protected wildlife sanctuaries.
There are an estimated 40,000 Asian elephants left in the world, her research indicates. There are just 4,000 in Thailand’s forests, compared with 100,000 a century ago.
“Thailand is a really interesting model. There are half a million acres of protected areas an elephant can go to,” said Sims, adding decisions must be made “at a government level” to add more throughout Asia.
With When Elephants Were Young now being released internationally after its successful film festival rollouts, Sims said she looks forward to focusing more on her work with elephant conservation organizations.
“I didn’t anticipate World Elephant Day would become as big as it has, but we hit a nerve globally,” she said. “So it looks like I’ll be working for the elephants for a while.”
For more information, go to worldelephantday.org.