Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story
This is the story about an elephant rescue. Film Director Ashley Bell and a team of elephant rescuers, led by world-renowned Asian elephant conservationist Sangdeaun Lek Chailert embark on a risky and dangerous 48-hour mission 500 miles across Thailand to rescue a 70-year-old captive blind Asian elephant and bring her to freedom.
Love & Bananas tells the story of Noi Na who has been in chains her entire life and has worked for the last 30 years giving elephant rides to tourists. The film shows the life that Noi Na lived, how elephants are trained by breaking their spirit to control and dominate them, and the grueling, dangerous rescue and transport to Noi Na’s ultimate home: Lek’s Elephant Nature Park, where rare rescued elephants can live out their natural lives free of human demands.
This is a heartwarming and hopeful film that exposes the plight of Asian elephants and the people who work tirelessly to save them. The film reveals how Asian elephants experience brutality at the hands of trainers for elephant rides and treks for tourists, and to provide entertainment for tourists. But what tourists don’t see, is the horrific cruelty elephants have had to endure through brutally cruel training techniques that break them, shatter their nature, and force them to behave – for humans. It’s called the Crush Box. Beyond cruel training, they are overworked, underfed, undernourished, beaten, abused, physically exhausted–every day of their lives. Only the lucky fortunate ones are rescued and taken to a life of freedom.
Film Length: 75 Minutes
Film Release: March, 2018
Visit, Volunteer, Donate!
Elephant Haven Thailand Sanctuary, Lek Chailert, Founder. Elephant Haven is located in Sai Yok, Kanchanaburi, in the south-west of Thailand. Email: [email protected]
Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai, Thailand, Lek Chailert, Founder.
Donate to: Save Elephant Foundation
Read: 10 places you need to go to ethically interact with elephants
More About the Film
Right now, thousands of elephants — including babies — are held captive in elephant tourist attractions, parks, even “sanctuaries” across Asia. The elephants are beaten into submission when they’re young through a process known as the “Crush Box,” then are forced to let travelers take rides on their backs and to perform tricks that are often painful, including walking on tightropes, balancing on two legs, and dancing, as well as painting and playing ball games. Love & Bananas is inspiring people all over the world to stop supporting the use of captive elephants as entertainment. (Source: Love & Bananas)
What You Can Do
- DON’T take elephant rides – anywhere
- DON’T take elephant treks
- DON’T attend circuses
- DON’T attend zoos
- DON’T attend elephant shows
- DON’T buy products made from elephant parts, like shoes, ivory
- DON’T buy art or products made by elephants
- TELL your friend not to take part in these activities either
- WRITE a story for your local newspapers describing the plight of the elephant and how we can all assist in their survival
- DONATE to an ethical elephant sanctuary, see the list
- VOLUNTEER and visit to support an ethical elephant sanctuary
- GET educated about elephants
- SIGN the Pledge!
Quotes from the Film
“She’s moving an 8000 pound elephant, 480 miles across Thailand, that has to be cleared by three animal checkpoints. She could panic, dehydrate, stress out, have heat stroke, and faint.”
“There are 45 handicapped elephants at the park – broken hips, landmine victims, trapped in a poachers traps, dislocated backbones, starving, psychic problems due to cruelty and abuse.”
“Lek has proven that you can guide elephants with love – and bananas, not bull hooks.”
“Long truck trips meant only one thing to Noi Na – taking her to places that she would be abused. She’s scared and depressed. See she’s had a very bad experience. 70 years of travel back and forth, she’s scared and nervous.”
“If we want to protect them, we have to do it right now.”
“Every single elephant has one thing in common – they have all been through the CRUSH BOX.”
“Deforestation is happening everywhere. In Cambodia, 75% of the jungle is gone.”
“Once elephants are “broken” – they often work 12-15 hour days, 7 days a week. Sometimes in 105 degree heat, without food or water, often pregnant – or have just delivered a baby. They die from heart attacks due to exhaustion.”
“Where elephants exist, there’s also human conflict. There’s no place for them to go that’s wild any longer. That’s why the sanctuary is so important.”
“Lek Chailert has rescued over 200 elephants in Southeast Asia in 20 years. It took 10 years to negotiate the release of these two elephants for rescue (at the sanctuary). They are big business and owners are reluctant to let them go.”
“In the logging camp someone put her right eye out with a slingshot.”
“Scars, abscesses, and dehydration are common in elephants that are used for work.”
“Elephants are remarkable – they are self-aware, and empathic; they mourn the loss of their loved ones and cover the dead to honor them. Their dung regenerates the forest. Without elephants eco-systems would collapse.”
“There are fewer than 450,000 African elephants left in the world. But fewer than 45,000 Asian elephants left and 1/3 live in captivity. Asian elephants in SE Asia are considered Endangered. African elephants are a “Threatened” species.”
“The plight of the Asian elephant is less known to the world. Asian elephants are captured from the wild to be used as “service” elephants, or they are put on display in zoos and circuses. Whatever their use, Asian elephants are on the path to extinction.”
“Elephant rescues are very rare – they can fall apart at the last minute, an owner can change his mind, permanence can be denied – or worse.”
“Trekking companies wanted me to put everything under the carpet—the truth. Trekking companies don’t want the public or tourists to know the truth. What they do to elephants.”
“By sheer willpower, Lek founded the elephant sanctuary.”
“Animals want to have freedom, just like us.”
“Normally trekking camps don’t allow filming.”
“Noi Na had a serious infection. She had bull-hook injuries.”
“Captive elephants are chained, and sway side to side, they aren’t allowed to move, like in the wild. Truthfully – they are losing their minds, that’s why they sway.”
“Their eyes say ‘help me.’”
“Elephants are not a domestic animal. They have been “broken,” but are not domesticated.”
“Now she’s free. To change someone’s life is the reward.”
“Seeing this change in Noi Na speaks to the power of love, of compassion, of kindness.”
“Lek continues to work to rescue elephants and to transition trekking companies to elephant sanctuaries.”
Film Credits
Director: Ashley Bell
Screenwriters: Ashley Bell, John Michael McCarthy Fernanda Rossi
Producers: Ashley Bell, John Michael McCarthy, Ross M. Dinerstein
Executive Producers: Steve Bannerman, David Casselman, Pam Casselman, Ian Hultquist, Sofia Hultquist, Samantha Housman, Leandro Marini, Roddy Tabatabai
Directors of Photography: John Michael McCarthy, Tabatabai
Editor: John Michael McCarthy
Production Company: Campfire
