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Overlooked & Underrated Docs & Features
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No Fear No Favor: Hope for African Wildlife
“We are the generation that are allowing the African elephant and rhino to go extinct. If you can’t bring economical value to the local people to protect animals, then you will never win this war.”
Interviewee
Written, directed, and shot by Mirra Banks “No Fear No Favor” covers African efforts to reduce—and, ideally, eradicate—the $20 billion a year poaching industry and to create environments that support both wildlife and human communities. For two years Banks was in Zambia's Kafue National Park—one of the largest intact wilderness areas in the world—and in Kenya and Namibia.
The film includes a few images of the usual horrific slaughter of noble creatures, yet the primary focus is on conservation efforts of non-African and African citizens. Workers from Game Rangers International support the establishment and on-going developments of these efforts to save African wildlife.
We hear from a few of the wildlife protection workers, and see plenty of elephants—along with quite a few pangolins. One of the workers was a former poacher who got caught, and is now dedicated to taking care of orphaned elephants raised by humans, and released to the wild when ready.
Poaching is very much alive and well, of course. I can only wonder who is winning. Global organized crime is driving the slaughter of precious wildlife with helicopters, night-vision technologies, and sophisticated weapons. The United Nations estimates African countries lose $50 billion annually to corruption—money that could and should be used to benefit both the peoples and wildlife of Africa.
On the side of compassion and wisdom we have non-profit organizations, community organizers, and documentary filmmakers like Mirra Banks fighting the good fight on behalf of wildlife. Who’s winning? I suspect the killers—and would love to be proved wrong.