When you have some spare time.. these are all good and worth watching :thumb:
A Fall from freedom:
Whales and dolphins have captured the imagination of people all over the world. They have come to symbolize not only an alien form of intelligence, but a sense of ultimate freedom in their marine environment and a comradery among their herd mates that we envy and admire.
A FALL FROM FREEDOM is the first film to expose the long and sordid history of the captive whale and dolphin business; a history that continues to this day. The illegal capture and transport of killer whales, the thousands of dolphins that are killed in order to provide marine parks and aquariums with replacement animals, and the ability of these facilities to miseducate the public about these animals.
Lolita the killer Whale: Slave to entertainment:
When Two Species Collide in the Icy Waters of Puget Sound a Storm of Epic Proportions is Unleashed. Man versus nature; in the summer of 1970 a barbaric hunt kills five orca whales and destroys the lives of countless others. Six young orcas are ripped away from their family, sold to marine parks, and shipped across the world to enter into a life of slavery. Three decades later only one survives. And she just so happens to be Miami’s biggest performer.
Since that fateful day in 1970, waves of controversy have pounded both shores of the US as freedom fighters from across the globe battle for her liberation. It is a story of beauty, grace, passion, respect, exploitation, greed, prejudice, and domination. Disturbing footage of marine mammal captures and alarming interviews with former "Flipper" trainer Ric O'Barry, marine mammal specialist Ken Balcomb, animal sociologist Howard Garrett, animal advocate and President of Ocean Drive Magazine Jerry Powers, and former whale hunter John Crowe.
The Witness:
How does a construction contractor from a tough Brooklyn neighborhood become an impassioned animal advocate?
In the award-winning documentary THE WITNESS, Eddie Lama explains how he feared and avoided animals for most of his life, until the love of a kitten opened his heart, inspiring him to rescue abandoned animals and bring his message of compassion to the streets of New York. With humor and sincerity, Eddie tells the story of his remarkable change in consciousness.
Trailer:
Full movie:
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For The Love Of Elephants:
For the Love of Elephants is an intimate portrait of an amazing elephant-human bond that develops at an elephant rehabilitation centre near Nairobi, Kenya. The film takes viewers inside the emotional world of young, orphaned African elephants and their compassionate keepers, Edwin, Mishak, and Abdi. Never far from their charge are the centre’s founder, Dame Daphne Sheldrick, and her daughter Angela, who manages
the Sheldrick Trust. Through hard work, love and dedication, this expert team create a unique human-elephant family, and nurture the orphaned elephants back to health.
Shot on location in Kenya,
For the Love of Elephants closely observes the process by which an orphaned elephant named Sities survives the first days of recovery after arriving at the Trust. The audience discovers that this adorable three-month old elephant has recently lost her mother to poachers. Alone and fragile, Sities is flown to the nursery. The challenge is to keep the young elephant alive; the keepers know that the emotional trauma alone may be too much for Sities to endure.
The baby elephant makes it through the first crucial hours, but dehydration, disease, and social alienation from the herd are all still sad possibilities for Sities. She needs to find a “step” mother and form new bonds with the other elephants, not an easy thing to do in the complex social world of the herd. Mishak, known as the “elephant whisperer” is crucial to Sities’ integration at the Trust, and plays the role of mother, sibling and teacher whenever the elephant requires it.
The bond between the human and elephants runs deep at the Sheldrick Trust. Caring for elephants is clearly an intense job, requiring compassion and insight into the minds and spirits of these great animals. It is a job that comes with many rewards.
For the Love of Elephants reveals that the most powerful reward is helping the young elephants reach adolescence and eventually reintegrate into the Kenyan wild.
