Elephant rescues in Thailand are rare, unpredictable, and often life threatening. After waiting 2.5 years, film 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 (founder ofSave Elephant Foundation), 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. LOVE & BANANAS aims to ignite a new way of thinking about this species and shows what can be done to prevent the extinction of Asian elephants.Â
Special guest in attendance for post-film discussion: Steven M. Wise, Founder and President of the
Nonhuman Rights Project - the only civil rights organization in the US working to achieve legal rights for members of species other than our own.