On a trip to Thailand in 2017, I did some research into elephant experiences in the country as it was a must do on any trip to the country. Only when I read further into the industry did I stumble upon the unethical parks and shows located across the country. Having researched thoroughly, I visited an ethical sanctuary that rescues Elephants from labour and tourism camps from across Thailand.

During my visit to the sanctuary, we had the opportunity to see the elephants up close and learn about the problems of elephant tourism in the world, in Asia in particular. Their message of education being key to helping the elephants and reducing the impact elephant tourism was something that stuck with me after my visit. Over the rest of my time in Thailand and the months following the trip, I was formulating the idea for a documentary that would highlight the role of the tourist and educate people on the topic.

Coinciding with the opportunity to be partially funded as a graduation film for my final project at the Northern Film School, myself and several others headed out to Thailand in February of 2019.

Whilst there we visited the Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary, approximately 5 hours out of Chiang Mai. The sanctuary is based in a remote Karen village, deep into the hills of the north. It was home to 5 elephants who live freely in the surrounding forests. Founded by Kerri Mcrea and her partner Sombat in 2016, the sanctuary seeks to educate people of the ethical treatment of elephants in the country and offer them an opportunity to interact with and observe the elephants. Whilst staying at the sanctuary, you also immerse yourself in the local villages lifestyle and culture living in home-stays alongside them. Their simplistic lifestyles were a personal highlight of the trip. Being cut off from the outside world without internet, swimming in the river that ran through the village, animals and livestock roaming free and the friendliest locals were all aspects of the stay that completely changed my outlook on the time we spent there.

The shoot itself was challenging. As producer, along with the help of other members of the crew, we’d coordinated the shoot that involved traveling to the other side of the world, whilst arranging equipment permits, travel, accommodation, crowdfunding all whilst navigating health and safety guidelines in place at the university. Once we reached the sanctuary, we were relieved that everything had gone to plan, but didn’t rest on it as we knew with only three days there we’d have to be efficient. We had to hike for a couple of hours in the surrounding hills to find the elephants each morning. Once we found them we were able to capture them in their natural environments, how they should be, as well as their natural interaction with their mahouts and the other guests there to learn about and observe them. Aside from the hike, we interviewed several members of staff and volunteers, as well as a couple of local villagers. The interviews focussed upon the way the sanctuary itself operates, the situation of elephant tourism in Thailand and the lifestyle of the village.

During our time there, we came to the realisation that the story was developing from not only one covering the problem of elephant tourism, but how the local village around the sanctuary co-existed with them and encouraged a simpler, more compassionate way of life.

Before we went, we expected to be heading back to Chiang Mai full of anticipation of a hot shower and wifi. However when it came to leaving, we were all disheartened wishing we could’ve spent longer at the sanctuary and its peaceful surroundings.

We then spent the next couple of days in Chaing Mai capturing the tourism and culture  surrounding the elephant tourism industry. We shot at local markets, temples and tourist hot spots to capture the essence of what makes the un-ethical elephant attractions so desirable to tourists.

In order to capture and compare the way elephants are treated in the unethical parks compared to the sanctuary, myself and Henry visited a well known elephant camp just outside of Chiang Mai. We were blown away by how cheap the whole experience was, costing us less than £20 for the day and taxi there per person. Having spent the last week at the sanctuary, seeing how the elephants should be treated, it was a crushing feeling walking around the park witnessing the awful conditions they were being kept in. The average elephant needs four hundred square kilometres to roam in, here there were up to ten elephants crammed into pens not much bigger than them. The lack of education became clear as we saw tourists walking around to take photos, feeding and posing with the elephants. They were all kept with chains around their feet and necks to restrict their movement that really emphasised their helplessness. We had to sit through a show also where they’d been trained to perform tricks like playing football, throwing darts, painting, playing instruments and more. Watching them being controlled by bull hooks as the audience watched on and applauded was gut wrenching and we left as soon as we’d got the footage we needed.

Post production was challenging, having to coincide with the university deadline for the project. Throughout the process, there were lots of changes and the final film is totally different in tone and form than the first cut we put together. Going back to the original message of the film to educate and inform people of the issues elephants face was essential to stay on track and come away with the film I conceived back in 2017 at the elephant sanctuary in Thailand.

We previewed the film to audiences at our graduation film screenings and the reception it received was terrific. We also picked up the audience award for ‘Best Documentary’ which was a great feeling, seeing peoples appreciation for the film we’d created.

Since finishing our undergraduate degree, we had the opportunity to revisit the edit of the film, work on an original score for the film and do things that we weren’t able to do in the post production period we had back in 2019.

The film was also selected for screening at Durham Film Festival as well at the Festival Of The Moving Image 2022 and progressed to a late stage of voting for the Young Creative Awards as part of the Deauville Green Awards 2022. It also won the award for Best Documentary at the British International Film Festival in 2023.

It’s available to watch over on YouTube and is embedded at the top of this page.