Soul of the Elephant has won at the INFF 2016
The Innsbruck Nature Film Festival is proud to announce that SOUL OF THE ELEPHANT has won an HONORABLE MENTION for Nature Documentaries at the INFF 2016!
This is what the Jury said about the film:
English:
A very personal and empathetic approach to the topic of ivory and elephants.
By traveling into the very heart of the Botswanan elephant territories, the filmmakers manage to also provide a journey into the soul of the elephants.
Sensitively told without sensational self-aggrandizement, this film brings us nearer to these grey giants than any film has ever done before. Thank you and Congratulations!
Deutsch:
Eine sehr persönliche und einfühlsame Herangehensweise an das Thema Elfenbein und Elefanten.
Den Jouberts gelingt mit ihrer Reise ins Herz der Elefantengebiete Botswanas eine Reise in die Seele der Elefanten.
Gefühlvoll erzählt, ohne reißerische Selbstdarstellung, kommt dieser Film den grauen Riesen näher wie kaum ein Film zuvor. Danke und herzliche Gratulation!
Soul of the Elephant wins the highest accolade - "Grand Prix" at the Matsalu Film Festival
"An artistically beautiful film about one of the world’s largest animals with a strong but subtle conservation message. It cleverly weaves historical with current filming for a personal expedition into the soul of the elephant."
14 years ago a humble and tentative endeavour, Matsalu Nature Film Festival has now become one of the renowned and respected festivals in the film world, winning more and more attention with every subsequent year. Once started under the parallel name „Green Gate“ with this identifiable and obvious flavour of local event, it has now absolutely different dimensionality, covering the whole world.
Soul of the Elephant nominated for numerous accolades
Wildlife Films recent production 'Soul of the Elephant' has recently been nominated for a number of accolades and awards:
Best Wildlife Film by the 2016 New York WILD Film Festival.
Wins best Cinematography: International Wildlife Film Festival in Missoula, Montana
Golden Green award at the Deauville Green Awards (France)
Won 1st Place at the international Film Festival Godollo (Hungary in the category: Documentaries on nature protection and conservation
18 May: Officially selected for Best Feature documentary of 2016 – Beijing International Film Festival
21st July: Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Nature Programming Category.
Synopsis:
Despite living in the wild in Botswana for 30 years, filming, researching and exploring the world they have come to know so well, award-winning filmmakers and conservationists Dereck and Beverly Joubert say they are often still surprised by what they come across on their journeys. Such was the case when the couple were exploring the backwaters of the bush one day and stumbled upon the skulls of two large bull elephants with their ivory tusks intact. To the Jouberts, this is always cause for celebration because it means the giants died of natural causes and not, for example, from poaching, snares or bullets.
An elephant’s age can be determined by its molar teeth, and the Jouberts conclude from them that both animals died at around 70, but still had a few years left to live. So what caused these bulls to die in the same place and at the same time? The mystery so intrigues the filmmakers, they decide to spend the next two years traveling through what would have been their home range, reconstructing the lives these elephants would have led, reimagining their birth and childhood, how they would have interacted with each other, their great migrations for water with their families and the inevitable encounters with lions.
Conservation at a Crossroads
Hear from Dereck and Beverly Joubert, among other dedicated wildlife experts who are working to protect threatened species and their fragile ecosystems for future generations. Learn about some of the innovative new ways they are helping communities and wildlife coexist more peacefully.
Joubert's 'Illuminations' brings Africa to Park City
Beverly Joubert's photography exhibition "Illuminations of Africa's Wildlife: Its Beauty, Its Struggle to Survive" is not just a collection of stunning black and white color images of lions, cheetahs, elephants and rhinoceros -- it is a call to action.
"What we are dealing with right now is a battle over these animals because we are losing them at an alarming rate," said Joubert's husband, Dereck, during a conference call with The Park Record from their home in Botswana, South Africa. "We lose five lions a day, a rhino every seven hours and elephants at a rate of five an hour. There is a massive decline, and we, at the risk of our lives, do whatever we can about that.
"We thought we need to do a fine-art exhibition about these animals, largely because when these animals disappear, we will lose a lot and we need to illuminate exactly what we will lose when that happens," he said.
The exhibit, which will open at the Kimball Art Center with a member reception on Wednesday, Jan. 20, focuses on the beauty of the animals.
"It is exciting to bring Africa to North America and to enlighten people of what we have," Beverly said. "I think, too often, that people don't realize we have an incredible variety of animals and unfolding stories. This is a way for us to discuss the important and difficult issues."
Dereck and Beverly featured in GoPro virtual reality
Rhinos Without Borders in particular received a lot of recognition and acknowledgement this month through a successful partnership between Great Plains Conservation and GoPro.
GoPro released a completely interactive and immersive Virtual Reality Rhino Relocation clip on the 15th March. This video received 1,63 million views in the first week of it’s release…which shocked even the publishers at GoPro it seems!
You do not need any special glasses to move around and explore this world – just open the link on your phone, iPad or computer and enjoy this incredible experience. Please click here to view.
Beverly’s photographs appear in March 2016 National Geographic magazine
I could be in the presence of leopards every minute of each day. Around 2003 [my husband] Dereck [Joubert] and I were fortunate to discover a newborn leopard cub. We had been tracking its mother for a few days. She led us to her den, where we met this tiny little fluffy fur ball, who we later called Legadema.
Legadema wobbled around her mother’s feet, very vulnerable. I instantly fell in love with this precious little creature. She was so exquisite in every way, from her camouflaged, beautiful fur coat to those piercing eyes. As she grew, her steel-blue eyes turned an incredible shade of bright amber, and they were always attentive.
She was filled with curiosity while she explored and investigated the forest. On many days she stared right at me, appearing to understand that we were not there to harm her but to protect her species. Her eyes would show compassion, which is so much of what I felt in her company.
The moments we spent with this mother and daughter were a lesson in caring and compassion. Their attention to each other, as if nothing else mattered, was part of the love affair I started feeling for all leopards. This moment changed our lives. For three and a half years we followed this inquisitive little cat. She seduced us to the point that we had no choice but to become ambassadors for leopards. —Beverly Joubert
Dereck & Beverly Joubert on the Ellen show
National Geographic Explorers Symposium
National Geographic explorers—anthropologists, archaeologists, conservationists, photographers, educators, oceanographers, epidemiologists, paleontologists, geneticists, geographers, linguists, urban planners, and more—gather at the Society’s Washington, D.C., headquarters to share their latest discoveries and insights with one another and the National Geographic staff.The annual Explorers Symposium has become a forum for visionary individuals across a range of fields to meet and find ways to collaborate on innovative projects. Participants include the new class of National Geographic Emerging Explorers, along with Explorers-in-Residence, Visiting Fellows, and others. The 2009 symposium featured two days of panel discussions on topics ranging from cultural heritage to our ocean’s future, engaging communities in conservation to the power of the image.
Find out more at www.nationalgeographic.com/explorers/projects/explorers-symposium/