Projects
Flight of the Elephants
More than two years in the making, Flight of the Elephants is the incredible account of eight Asian elephants as they journey from rural Thailand, experience months of quarantine, embark on an enormous Russian Illyusion to a remote Indian Ocean island and then finally arrive at their new homes in Sydney and Melbourne Zoos.
As the elephants are prepared for the journey we follow the army of workers, veterinarians, court officials, politicians, keepers, scientists, horticulturalists, cargo experts and countless others who make the journey possible or problematic. We experience the frustration and emotion as animal rights court actions delay the transfer for over a year. Then, on the day of transfer, Thai nationalist protesters prevent the transfer once again. Only a secret midnight run enables the elephants to make it to the airport on time and make the flight to the remote Cocos Islands - Australia's quarantine station - and then finally to their purpose built state-of-the-art enclosures in Sydney and Melbourne Zoos - the first major step in a project that will contribute to the survival of the species.
Flight of the Elephants highlights the dilemmas facing large mammal conservation. Asiatic Elephants were once vital for transport and cultivation in South East Asia but that role has been supplanted by technology. Today, they are classed as endangered and now hover at only one tenth the population of the African Elephant. Worldwide only 35000 remain; in Thailand that number is only 5000. Elephants are vulnerable to all manner of threats and need large areas of forest in the wild. Habitat loss and fragmentation threatens them throughout their range. As habitat becomes fragmented elephants come into increasing, often fatal conflict with humans and agriculture.
However the transfer of the elephants is only part of this action packed account. Filmed in far eastern India and Myanmar as well as Thailand, the film explores the plight of all Asian elephants, delving into their past as beast of war and beast of burden, brought to life with exclusive footage of elephants being trained for Oliver Stone's Alexander. We meet the Thai at the forefront of Elephant conservation - local people with distinctly different approaches. We travel with elephants to the Tsunami disaster area on the coast of Thailand and witness their tender retrieval of human bodies. We are present when a rouge killer elephant is captured, not to be killed but to be retrained and we witness the spiritual connection, as an honored elephant - long dead - is exhumed and transferred to a Monastery.
Flight of the Elephants is ultimately a unique portal into the plight of the Asian Elephant. Filmed both from a Western and from an Asian perspective, the film explores the tragic collisions of man and beast and the politics of wildlife transfers, speaking plainly about the necessary steps to save this remarkable animal.