Dear “Ele-Friends”,
We received a public tweet from a fellow elephant lover today that I felt deserved a public response. I have replied to her directly, but I think it’s a worthy conversation for the Elephant Community at large, so I have posted it here as an open letter. We look forward to hearing your comments and if you can join us at the Little Rock Film Festival on either May 30th or June 1st, please give us an “Ele-Friend” shout out.
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Hi, Cora,
I saw your tweet and I just want to clarify that the Little Rock Film Festival selected “The Eyes of Thailand” and they worked with the Little Rock Zoo to host one of two screenings of “The Eyes of Thailand” during the festival.
As a filmmaker, one of my jobs is to ensure that the film reaches the broadest audience possible. Hence, this is why we have submitted to several film festivals around the United States and the world. Once they select us, they decide our screening locations and times, and if they want to partner with sponsors or partners for screenings.
I personally know that the zoos vs. sanctuaries debate is ripe with “elephant politics”, enough to fill several Elephant Summits, however one of the mission’s of the “The Eyes of Thailand” film is to start the much needed conversations about protecting Asian elephants in their native countries. This, of course, spills over into how Asian elephants are treated in their non-native countries, but that is a secondary conversation because the film is neither pro-zoo or anti-zoo. It is pro-Thai Asian Elephants and pro-FAE’s Elephant Hospital.
On a side note, as activists, I think it is dangerous if we only speak to the people that are already on our side because we won’t make very much progress that way. I believe we need to speak with the unenlightened and the neutral people, too, if we want to make real, significant changes.
At the end of the day, though, “The Eyes of Thailand” is the courageous story about one woman’s quest to help two elephant land mine survivors walk again. I hope it speaks to animal lovers, humanitarians, and environmentalists, as well as the general public, but it is a story and a conversation-starter.
Thank you for starting this conversation about how Asian elephants are treated in the U.S. and I hope we can all work together to improve their lives, no matter where the Asian elephants live.
Sincerely,
Windy Borman
Director/Producer, “The Eyes of Thailand”
Windy you said, “On a side note, as activists, I think it is dangerous if we only speak to the people that are already on our side because we won’t make very much progress that way. I believe we need to speak with the unenlightened and the neutral people, too, if we want to make real, significant changes.” We don’t need to be “singing to the choir.” This has been driving me crazy for years – especially with the advocates who get their noses out of joint for one reason or another, especially about what food goes on somebody’s plate or whether we see a bullhook or a chain – and then block an advocate for it – very self destructive. If we look at the tens of thousands on Ringling’s Fb page, or any zoo page, and then look at how few we advocates have, we must realize we need each other and have to focus on the issue of helping elephants and not anything else.
This is one reason I have the Fb page Elephant Lovers, to get to people who love elephants but really don’t know anything about them. By sticking to “soft” education, I (and more educated members) can draw them into the issues that will foster them to eventually become advocates. The other thing I notice is that people love to make comments on Fb (mea culpa), but do not comment where it counts – on the newspaper and TV station sites. The most important people to educate is the media, they have the most influence. Elephants can make no progress without them. Poaching is the biggest example of that. Most people in the US still don’t know of the devastation because the media does not cover it regularly.
So sorry for this misunderstanding.