Elephant Refugees and Their Ongoing Fight to be Free

In light of recent developments, Hogarth made Elephant Refugees to make people aware of the latest issues.

Elephant RefugeesComing to VOD/Digital on Nov 18 Worldwide

When a documentary title is simply called Elephant Refugees, it’s easy to realise they have no place to call home and somewhere, humans are mistreating them. In respect to the latter, when Botswana banned elephant poaching in 2014, these gentle mammals knew there’s a haven to flock to and it’s perfectly documented. Their migration was unexpected, and it generated problems and provoked humanity to re-evaluate their accord with the gentle beast.

What’s studied in this documentary by Louise Hogarth goes beyond studying our rapport with this majestic fellow. The last work I reviewed was When Elephants Were Young, which concerned the latter–exploiting them for tourism and labour. With this latest, the focus is on how we can help them. But at what cost? When they proved to be a unexpected boon to a region that’s been opening up to eco-tourism, to move them away is required when they start devestating the area in search for water. In regards to the Moller family’s ironically named camp site and bush lodge, Elephant Sands, the pros and cons about keeping them around or sending them away need to be weighed.

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TheNFB at the 2020 Vancouver Film Fest!

TheNFB Logo Black and WhiteThe world premiere of Sundance award-winning Vancouver filmmaker Jennifer Abbott’s new feature doc The Magnitude of All Things (Cedar Island Films/Flying Eye Productions/NFB) tops a powerful lineup of National Film Board of Canada (NFB) produced and co-produced documentary and animation at the 2020 Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF), taking place September 24 to October 7.

Two NFB feature docs by acclaimed creators are also making their BC debuts:

  • Inconvenient Indian by Michelle Latimer, a filmmaker, producer, writer and activist of Algonquin, Métis and French heritage.
  • John Ware Reclaimed by Cheryl Foggo, a Calgary-born filmmaker, author and playwright whose work often focuses on the Black Canadian experience.

The festival is presenting two NFB animated shorts:

  • The Great Malaise by Quebec animator and illustrator Catherine Lepage.
  • The Fake Calendar by Meky Ottawa, from the Atikamekw Nation in Quebec, produced through the Hothouse program.

TRAILERS:

The Magnitude of All Things by Jennifer Abbott 

(World Premiere) When Jennifer Abbott lost her sister to cancer, her sorrow opened her up to the profound gravity of climate breakdown. The Magnitude of All Things draws intimate parallels between the experiences of grief—both personal and planetary. We are getting tories from the frontlines of climate change in Northern Canada, Australia, Ecuador, Sweden and England merge with recollections from the filmmaker’s childhood on Ontario’s Georgian Bay. What do these stories have in common? The answer, surprisingly, is everything.

BC-based Abbott has been making films about urgent social, political and environmental issues for 25 years, including co-directing the 2003 Sundance award-winning The Corporation. She’s also back at VIFF this year with The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel, co-directed with Joel Bakan.

The Great Malaise by Catherine Lepage

In the voiceover for this animated short, a young woman attempts to describe herself, casting her life in the ideal light that society expects. The film’s imagery, however, tells a different story, poignantly illustrating the intense anxiety that comes with the quest for perfection and the pursuit of happiness. A film that’s both funny and moving, and above all, profoundly human.

Don’t Walk Away from this Documentary on Who Farted?

Who Farted? The world's first climate change documentary comedy. | The  Screening Room, 120 Princess St, Kingston | To Do Canada

World Broadcast Premiere

Documentary Channel
June 28, 2020
9:00pm ET/PT

SPOILER ALERT
Albert Nerenberg and Nik Sheehan‘s hilarious and insightful documentary shows cutting the cheese can be an art form. Who Farted? doesn’t always mean ill tidings. But, yes, it’s possible to destroy the world from unleashing too much gas into the environment.
All those questions people not wanting to ask about the origins of this needed bodily function are answered in detail. This ranges from learning how we generate this gas to its impact on society as a whole. The absurd is hilariously examined by visiting the World Fart Championships held in Utajärvi, Finland. But there’s more hard pressed concerns, which is primarily about whether or not Nature can handle all this methane and sulphur being unleashed–especially by cows. That is, are we headed towards global warming?

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