'One Lucky Elephant' details search for new home for former circus elephant
Courtesy of Raffe PhotographerDavid Balding and Flora, the title character in the documentary "One Lucky Elephant."
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
By Stephen Whitty/The Star-Ledger from: nj.com
Elephants never forget.
But people do.
People forget that these animals weren’t bred to walk in circles, or stand on their hind legs, or work in circuses, or pace in zoos. People forget that these creatures were meant to be in the wild.
But elephants remember.
And that’s one of the reasons — along with often brutal treatment at the hands of bad handlers — that the animals sometimes go rogue, breaking through barriers and causing pain.
Flora, though, was “One Lucky Elephant,” as the title of a tender new documentary tells us. Although she had worked in a small circus since she was a baby, her owner, a St. Nick-look-alike named David Balding, truly loved her.
Loved her enough to realize, as she grew into her terrible teens, that she needed to be somewhere else.
“One Lucky Elephant” — made over a period of 10 years — details his long, difficult search to find her a better home.
Another circus is out of the question. Most zoos are too depressing. An African game preserve seems promising — but that would mean saying goodbye forever. One U.S. sanctuary looks like a possibility — but they only take Asian elephants.
Time is passing.
Time that gives Balding the chance to second-guess his choices over the years. (Was he wrong to have her alone in a circus where she’d have no chance to socialize with other elephants? Wrong to bond so closely to her that she became dependent on him?)
Time, too, that gives an audience chance to ponder other things. Like the “bullhooks,” short, sharp clubs that even at Balding’s circus, are never out of a trainer’s hands. Or the quotes from a behavioral expert, who diagnoses captured elephants with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Pachyderms with PTSD? It sounds like a bad joke. Except as anyone who’s ever adopted an abandoned pet knows, animals are abused every day — and can show the after effects for years.
There’s a better future ahead for Flora — as the film’s title gives away. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t wrenching moments here for anyone who loves animals, or hates cruelty. (Which makes slightly older children a great and natural audience for this film.)
“One Lucky Elephant” intentionally takes a very narrow focus — there are no representatives from PETA here, or the World Wildlife Fund (or, for that matter, from some guild of zookeepers or ringmasters). Any questions about our relationship to wild animals are left up to you to ask, and facts about broader issues are hard to find.
It’s really just the story of two friends — one with a black top hat, and the other with a long gray trunk. And the importance of remembering what’s right and wrong in this world — and never forgetting that what’s right for us may be absolutely wrong for the one we love.
Ratings note: The film contains nothing to offend.
But people do.
People forget that these animals weren’t bred to walk in circles, or stand on their hind legs, or work in circuses, or pace in zoos. People forget that these creatures were meant to be in the wild.
But elephants remember.
And that’s one of the reasons — along with often brutal treatment at the hands of bad handlers — that the animals sometimes go rogue, breaking through barriers and causing pain.
Flora, though, was “One Lucky Elephant,” as the title of a tender new documentary tells us. Although she had worked in a small circus since she was a baby, her owner, a St. Nick-look-alike named David Balding, truly loved her.
Loved her enough to realize, as she grew into her terrible teens, that she needed to be somewhere else.
“One Lucky Elephant” — made over a period of 10 years — details his long, difficult search to find her a better home.
Another circus is out of the question. Most zoos are too depressing. An African game preserve seems promising — but that would mean saying goodbye forever. One U.S. sanctuary looks like a possibility — but they only take Asian elephants.
Time is passing.
Time that gives Balding the chance to second-guess his choices over the years. (Was he wrong to have her alone in a circus where she’d have no chance to socialize with other elephants? Wrong to bond so closely to her that she became dependent on him?)
Time, too, that gives an audience chance to ponder other things. Like the “bullhooks,” short, sharp clubs that even at Balding’s circus, are never out of a trainer’s hands. Or the quotes from a behavioral expert, who diagnoses captured elephants with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Pachyderms with PTSD? It sounds like a bad joke. Except as anyone who’s ever adopted an abandoned pet knows, animals are abused every day — and can show the after effects for years.
There’s a better future ahead for Flora — as the film’s title gives away. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t wrenching moments here for anyone who loves animals, or hates cruelty. (Which makes slightly older children a great and natural audience for this film.)
“One Lucky Elephant” intentionally takes a very narrow focus — there are no representatives from PETA here, or the World Wildlife Fund (or, for that matter, from some guild of zookeepers or ringmasters). Any questions about our relationship to wild animals are left up to you to ask, and facts about broader issues are hard to find.
It’s really just the story of two friends — one with a black top hat, and the other with a long gray trunk. And the importance of remembering what’s right and wrong in this world — and never forgetting that what’s right for us may be absolutely wrong for the one we love.
Ratings note: The film contains nothing to offend.
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