FILMS
In order to sensitise the public to the Asian elephant, Aane Mane participates in the making of films of fiction and documentaries for cinemas and television.
THE ANDAMAN ELEPHANT ENIGMA (Documentary, 52 minutes, 2023)
When in the 19th century, the European navigators began to explore the Andaman islands, there were none of the large mammals common to South Asia, including elephants.
Today, however, elephants are used in the extraction of timber and small herds live in the wild. How did they reach the islands and how were they able to regain new territories?
It is believed that in the Andamans, elephants swim in the sea from island to island. Is it a legend or a fact?
Could they have reached the Andamans during the last ice age 25,000 years ago, like the aboriginal tribes still living on the islands today? The film investigates the enigmatic history of the Andaman elephants.
ELEPHANT BLUES (Documentary, 90 minutes, 2014)
Elephant Blues is the true story of Ojas, a 4 year-old girl who lives in a forest in South India amongst elephants. She owes this childhood to her mother, Prajna, an Indian woman who left behind everything in search of her identity close to the roots of her culture, to live in the forest, with elephants, much like a hermit known in Indian mythology, Palakapya: a story that haunts her...
ELEPHAS MAXIMUS (Documentary, 3x52 minutes, 2004)
In the heart of Asia's most densely populated forest with wild elephants, in southern India, near Mysore, Prajna Chowta and the filmmaker Philippe Gautier, have filmed these great animals with unprecedented proximity as part of an exceptional three part documentary series, in which Prajna is the protagonist.
Part 1. Of Elephants and Men: 5000 years of working with elephants in Asia. The history of the mahouts or elephant trainers, from the Mauryan Empire to the British times, until the last Mysore Kheddas or grand captures.
Part 2. Meetings with Remarkable Animals: The Asian elephant in the wild faces the loss of its habitat, and suffers from a conflict with one of the largest human population in the world. (Includes 3D animations of the extinct species of the elephant's family.)
Part 3. God and the Elephant: The elephant as a symbol in Hindu mythology and in the imagination of Indians. How culture and belief participated in the conservation of wild life in Indian history.
THE OLD ELEPHANT ROUTE (Documentary, 52 minutes, 2000)
As a young forest officer in Assam in the 1930's, P.D. Stracey heard of an ancient migratory route of wild elephants on the border between Burma and India through the Chaukan Pass. He mentioned it in his book "Elephant Gold" but never saw it himself.
In 2000, Prajna CHOWTA decides to research the subject.
The Old Elephant Route had a worldwide distribution on television and revealed for the first time the threatened splendours of Namdapha National Park. It is one of the last of the primary forests left in Asia and the only one where tropical vegetation grows below snow-capped mountains.
HATHI (Fiction, 95 minutes,1998)
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Thanks to the Canadian producer Rock Demers, Prajna Chowta and the filmmaker Philippe Gautier directed a full-length feature film "Hathi" ('elephant' in Hindi) in 1996/97 with 14 months of principal photography in remote areas of India.
"French-born Philippe Gautier, a former assistant to John Boorman, David Hamilton and Helmut Newton, directed this beautiful Canadian nature drama examining the tragic reduction of elephants in the wild. In India of the '70s, teenage elephant-trainer Makbul grows close to elephant-calf Vikrama. By 1990, the introduction of modern forestry techniques eliminates the need for elephants to fell and move trees, prompting an auction sale of Vikrama. Makbul is distraught by the separation. Mistreated, Vikrama attacks and kills his new owner. Real-life mahouts (elephant riders) Jamedar Sabu Saab and Kawadi Makbul also served as the models for the characters they portray. Shown in competition at the 1998 Montreal World Film Festival.
Bob Stewart, All Movie Guide, New York Times
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