Naledi: A Baby Elephant's Tale

Naledi tells the incredible story of a baby elephant who was born into a rescue camp in the wilderness of Botswana. When she is suddenly orphaned at one-month-old, it is up to the keepers who look after the herd to keep her alive. This one elephant's tale remains both intimate and epic, a journey of tragedy and triumph, because when her entire species faces extinction, one life means everything.

“Renga is a linked-verse form of Japanese poetry that, though still practiced today, reached its peak between the 13th and 16th centuries. It is characterized by being a group composition, typically in the presence of judges and an audience, with poets rapidly contributing stanzas such that each new stanza addresses only the previous stanza; there is no overarching plot development, and the overall structure is a chain, not a conventional, linear narrative… In 1989, I had the great privilege to be involved in a film renga that was produced in the graduate film seminar led by Nathaniel Dorsky at the San Francisco Art Institute.” —Eric Theise

Naledi tells the incredible story of a baby elephant who was born into a rescue camp in the wilderness of Botswana. When she is suddenly orphaned at one-month-old, it is up to the keepers who look after the herd to keep her alive. This one elephant's tale remains both intimate and epic, a journey of tragedy and triumph, because when her entire species faces extinction, one life means everything.