ELEPHANT REFUGEES

A fight to survive, when waters run dry.

There is a crisis of elephantine proportions playing out in the dry sandy Kalahari woodlands of eastern Botswana.  A determined family of caring people is caught in the middle of the drama.  Life changed forever for the family when climate change intensified the frequent droughts, and hundreds of elephants arrived at Elephant Sands Bush Camp to drink water from the ancient pan. With narration by Game of Thrones’s Jerome Flynn (Serr Bronn of the Blackwater), Elephant Refugees tells the inextricable stories of the family and their giant neighbours.

 For the past 50 years International crime syndicates have poached wildlife throughout Africa in shocking quantities – forcing the elephants to flee for their lives using the ancient elephant pathways.

 When Botswana became a poacher-free zone in 2014, the news quickly spread from one elephant family to another, sparking a great migration. We don't know how elephants communicate over hundreds of miles, but they do.  Sixty per cent of Africa’s elephants now live in Botswana. 

In 2019, Botswana lifted the 5-year ban on elephant hunting.  Currently, Southern Africa is experiencing the worst drought in living memory.

DIRECTOR/WRITER/PRODUCER

Louise Hogarth

Louise Hogarth is an Academy Award winning filmmaker. Her documentaries provide a platform for very difficult subjects and have dealt with such issues as HIV/AIDS, ORPHANS and LGBT rights. Her work brings to light true stories about people and events with the intention of inspiring a call to action and accelerating social change.

Hogarth is the founder of Dream Out Loud Films and the DO Ubuntu Orphan Bracelet Campaign a revenue-generating project that employs women living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa and supports two orphanages. She supports 175 orphans in Africa from money generated from the sale of the DO Ubuntu bracelets.

PRODUCER

Lynn Webb

Lynn Webb has produced several award-winning feature films and documentaries including, among others,  A Dog Named Gucci, Empowerment Project: Ordinary Women Doing Extraordinary Things, Love & Taxes, Walter: Lessons From The World’s Oldest People and Seducing Charlie Barker. Lynn is currently in post- production on Olympia Dukakis: Undefined, and Midsummer in Newtown. She is also in production on Zombie Holiday, an animated feature film scheduled for release in 2017.  Lynn is a passionate animal rights activist and strives to make films which shed light on these difficult issues.

EDITOR

Mario Del Bello

Mario Del Bello’s career spans 15 years beginning with the award-winning documentary, The Gift.  After his second documentary, Angels In the Dust, he transitioned to Network shows Driving Force, Faking It and BBQ With Bobby Flay. From there he spent 7 years at ABC with Desperate Housewives, Extreme Makeover,  Pan Am and Dancing with the Star before moving to the Hallmark Channel as promo/trailer editor for their long list of films.  After another documentary Take Me Home Huey, he went back to Network TV working on Logo’s critically acclaimed Finding Prince Charming.  His career continues to deliver, driven by his motto to materialize dreams and bring story to life.

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Alistair Lyne

Alistair Lyne started in features and commercials more than 30 years ago. He got hooked on international news - preferring the “one take only” challenge - where he remains to this day. His talent for war coverage lasted a decade and a half before moving on to humanitarian films mostly in his beloved Africa. 
He worked extensively in reality television before deciding that there is no point in helping people, or entertaining them, if there is no planet for them to live on. 
Of late, his film work focusses on conservation, anti-poaching and wildlife. He has worked in more than 70 countries, 45 of those in Africa. He is presently based in Botswana and Cape Town.

COMPOSER

Laura Stevens

Laura is a native South African composer for screen, stage and concert, currently living and working in London, UK. Being the (admittedly unfinished) product of a multi-cultural upbringing, she likes to write music that takes you somewhere.
A graduate of London's Royal College of Music, she fuses symphonic Orchestral styles with eclectic world music influences, electronic sounds and elements from the music of popular youth culture. She is also passionate working on projects with a conscience, and amplifying unheard voices and perspectives through the arts.  Elephant Refugees has been a profound opportunity to revisit musical memories of her childhood in South Africa. She has written original scores for clients like the English National Ballet; BBC; Royal Shakespeare Company; SRF-1 (Swiss TV Network); Edinburgh Festival;  Berlinale; CERN (Arts vs Science Programme); and London's National Gallery.

CO-PRODUCER

Kari Collins

Kari Collins joined Dream Out Loud in 2013 after 20 years of a successful business career.  She brings her experience and skills to the role of Producer. Ms. Collins worked on Elephant Refugees and traveled to South Africa and Botswana with Ms. Hogarth for filming and production. In 2019 Louise and Kari returned to South Africa to finish postproduction for Elephant Refugees and to film a pilot about communication between Animals and Humans, working title, Animals are Talking.