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Conservationist Lek Chailert helps elephants recover from gruelling working lives in Thailand with joviality and grit in this engaging film

‘Have you ever had death threats?”, asks a voice behind from the camera. The question makes Thai conservationist Lek Chailert chuckle. “Many times. All the time!” Chailert is a tiny dynamo of a woman who has devoted her life to rescuing elephants exploited by the Thai tourist industry and illegal logging. With any luck, this documentary will find its way on to Netflix and reach a global audience, with the result that anyone planning to visit Thailand will cross an elephant ride off their bucket list.

We meet Chailert at her elephant sanctuary Elephant Nature Park, home to more than 100 rescues. Inevitably, Chailert has been called the elephant whisperer, and you can see why, watching her march along, a little line of elephants trooping behind. Chailert is funny and playful,...

"We're unconscious consumers." Utopia has revealed an official trailer for a compelling documentary titled The Last Tourist, made by filmmaker Tyson Sadler. This premiered at the 2021 Vancouver Film Festival last year, and is playing at the 2022 Cph:dox Film Festival in March. It also opens in the US this March. Travel is at a tipping point. From Carribean beaches to remote villages in Kenya, forgotten voices reveal the real conditions & consequences of one of the largest industries in the world. The role of the modern tourist is on trial. Exec produced by Bruce Poon Tip, the founder of community tourism & adventure operator, G Adventures, The Last Tourist features the world's leading travel and tourism visionaries including Dr. Jane Goodall, Lek Chailert (Save Elephant Foundation), Gary Knell (National Geographic), Meenu Vadera (Sakha Cabs For Women), and Jonathan Tourtellot (Destination Stewardship Center). I truly believe this is an important topic that we need to talk about more.

Utopia Picks Up The Last Tourist

Exclusive: Utopia has acquired rights to responsible travel documentary feature The Last Tourist and has set a March 15th digital release in the U.S. to mark the two-year anniversary of the pandemic closing the world’s borders to international travel. The film will also have its U.S. premiere on March 8th at Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Directed and written by Tyson Sadler and executive-produced by Bruce Poon Tip, the founder of community tourism pioneer and adventure operator, G Adventures, the movie features Dr. Jane Goodall, Lek Chailert, Gary Knell, Meenu Vadera and Jonathan Tourtellot. The documentary, which was awarded with the Special Jury Prize for Social Impact by the Canadian Documentary Jury at the Calgary International Film Festival, examines the history of modern tourism and offers a critique on its current state of affairs. It explores issues including animals suffering for entertainment,...

“I was very naively planning to do this as a short, happily ever after story,” says Ashley Bell about her feature-length documentary Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story.

Following a recent Awardsline screening of the film, Bell, perhaps best known for her performances in The Last Exorcism films, explained what drew her to write, direct and produce this moving chronicle of an often harrowing rescue of an Asian elephant from a brutal life in captivity.

Love & Bananas, submitted for a Best Documentary Feature Oscar, focuses on the heroic work in Thailand of elephant conservationist Lek Chailert, a woman who routinely risks her life to save the endangered Asian elephants from unimaginable cruelty.

“Through it all, Lek’s spirit was just this indomitable force,” says Bell, “working with such hope and love and miracles…You literally see an elephant become an elephant again with what she’s able to give to them.

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Love & Bananas Abramorama Reviewed by: Harvey Karten Director: Ashley Bell Screenwriters: Ashley Bell, John Michael McCarthy, Fernanda Rossi Cast: Ashley Bell, Lek Chailert, Noi Na Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 4/18/18 Opens: April 22, 2018 for Earth Day in select theater. April 27, 2018 Wider. Ninety-nine percent of us use animal products for food. […]

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"If we want to protect them, we have to do it right now." Abramorama has debuted an official trailer for the documentary film Love & Bananas, made by actress Ashley Bell - who directs and stars in the film. The full Star Wars title for this is Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story, and it is indeed a story about rescuers finding and rescuing a 70-year-old blind elephant. After waiting for 2 and 1/2 years for the chance, actor / director Ashley Bell and a team of elephant rescuers led by world renowned Asian elephant conservationist and Time Magazine's Hero of Asia, Lek Chailert, embark on a daring mission 480 miles across Thailand to rescue Noi Na, a 70-year old partially blind trekking elephant and bring her to freedom. That's what this is about and it looks totally wonderful, and life-affirming, because elephants are the coolest. And sadly they need to be saved as fast as possible.