Diary of an Elephant Orphan

The story of the birth of the exploitation of wild animals, the fruit of the iron twinning between the Industrial Revolution and the omnipotent and arrogant logic of colonialism, told through the multiple tribulations of Fritz, an Asian elephant who, one hundred and fifty years ago, worked in the largest circus in the world.

60 years ago, almost nothing was known of elephants in the wild. But then one young Scottish biologist changed that forever. In 1965 Iain Douglas-Hamilton arrived in Tanzania to live alongside African elephants. Later joined by his wife Oria and daughters Saba and Dudu, elephants became central to their lives with matriarch Boadicea and gentle young mother Virgo cherished like human relatives. But this garden Eden was short-lived as an ivory poaching epidemic swept across Africa forcing Iain to switch from pioneering scientist to maverick conservationist. He became a lone crusader against the international Ivory trade which was finally banned in 1989. Now back in the field and revealing even more about the fascinating world of elephants, Iain’s work continues alongside a new generation of Kenyan conservationists. This inspiring documentary combines stunning wildlife imagery with the story of a remarkable life showing how sometimes you have to stand alone to protect what you love.

Sangduen Chailert, or Lek, as she is generally known, has already rescued over 200 elephants. She has dedicated her life to saving the Asian elephant and founded a special camp, The Elephant Nature Park to protect them. We follow this winner of Time Magazine’s “Asian Hero of the Year” Award in her work. Lek is on a mission to save the Asian elephant in her native Thailand. This film looks at the plight of the Asian elephant, as it goes from being a widely used domestic animal, to becoming a burden on modernizing communities. With experts predicting its extinction within four decades, Lek’s work is needed now more than ever and she has gathered a large group of supporters and volunteers in her quest for a better future for the Asian elephant. This moving film demonstrates Lek’s natural understanding of and rapport with these huge animals and will stir the viewers emotions as it highlights the often desperate state some elephants are kept in.

Drawing upon a vast and richly visual archive and featuring a host of performers, historians and aficionados, this four-hour mini-series follows the rise and fall of the gigantic, traveling tented railroad circus and brings to life an era when Circus Day would shut down a town and its stars were among the most famous people in the country.

This unique historical film follows the struggle in Kenya's Tsavo National Park against bow and arrow poachers who kill elephants and rhino, and the story of hand-rearing elephant and rhino orphans whose mothers were killed by poachers.

Elephants disrupt the lives of a family deep in the jungles of Northern Siam, and an entire village.

Near the region of Angkor Watt, a group of children capture a baby elephant and are just growing attached to it when it is sold to a travelling safari. Pursuing the new owner, a boy manages to steal it back, and the children free it to return to its mother.

Born to Be Wild observes various orphaned jungle animals and their day-to-day behavioural interactions with the individuals who rescue them and raise them to adulthood. The film unfurls in two separate geographic spheres. Half of it takes place in the rain forests of Borneo, where celebrated primatologist Dr. Birute Galdikas assists baby orangutans; the other half takes place on the arid savannahs of Kenya, where zoologist Dame Daphne Sheldrick works with baby elephant calves.

An unprecedented UHD film on Karnataka's rich biodiversity narrated by David Attenborough. Portraying the state with highest number of tigers and elephants using the latest technology - a masterpiece showcasing the state, its flora, fauna.

Ashes and Snow, a film by Gregory Colbert, uses both still and movie cameras to explore extraordinary interactions between humans and animals. The 60-minute feature is a poetic narrative rather than a documentary. It aims to lift the natural and artificial barriers between humans and other species, dissolving the distance that exists between them.

Famous and talented feature film director and scriptwriter Jan Kounen plunges the viewer into a unique and thrilling adventure of pregnancy, birth, and baby’s first swim, alongside marine creatures. Leina Sato is a Japanese professional free diver and is expecting her first child. Her partner, Jean-Marie Ghislain is a famous underwater photographer. They share a passion for the oceans, and believe that a strong bond between a mother-to-be and cetaceans exists. And they want to prove it. Leina will be multiplying her encounters with whales, dolphins and other underwater mammals. Mother Ocean is the incredible encounter between humans and under water species, around the universal question of giving birth and the power of creating life.

In China more people are on death row than the rest of the world combined. The children of the convicts are often left alone, stigmatized and living in the streets. Grandma Zhang, as the kids call her, is a former prison guard who has founded an orphanage in Nanzhao.

The film tells of the beginnings of the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. At the end of the 1950s, the Tanzanian National Park Administration wanted to fence in the protected area around the Ngorongoro Crater. Bernhard and Michael Grzimek were invited by the national park administration in 1957 to get a precise picture of the animal migrations and to provide the national park administration with the values ​​they needed for their project. Using a new counting method with two airplanes, the Grzimeks found out that the migration of the herds was different than assumed.

The life and times of the mexican pianist Julieta García Rello, as told by her granddaughter.

Documentary following a community of herders in the Scottish Highlands preparing young reindeer for their first Christmas, including an orphaned reindeer calf who battles against the odds

Back from war in Afghanistan, a young British soldier struggling with depression and PTSD finds a second chance in the Amazon rainforest when he meets an American scientist, and together they foster an orphaned baby ocelot.

A talented group of orphaned children in Swaziland create a fictional heroine and send her on a dangerous quest.

Poignant postwar appeal for Britain’s Jewry to support orphaned Jewish children rescued from Europe.

Second Chance tells a story of Ukrainian orphaned children and the Canadian volunteers who spend their summers working along side them. The film follows first time volunteer and filmmaker, Adriana Luhovy, as she learns about the children and becomes witness to their strengths and resilience. Converging in Yaremche in the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine, over 500 orphaned children come together from all over the country. At first quiet and fearful, they learn to trust one another and their counsellors. By countering heartbreaking statistics - 60% of orphaned girls are trafficked within the first year of leaving the orphanage; 50% of boys end up in jail; 10% commit suicide - the volunteers are dedicated to making a difference in the lives of orphaned Ukrainian children.

Short dramatised documentary showing the ups and downs of daily life on a circus farm. “The only light comes from the flames of the funeral pyre that consumes a dead circus elephant shortly after its corpse has been unceremoniously dragged across a field by 50 carthorses.” (BFI)