@ Save the Elephants
New film about world-renowned elephant scientist,
Iain Douglas-Hamilton
In the 1960s, the world knew little about wild African elephants — until Scottish biologist and Save the Elephants founder, Iain Douglas-Hamilton, arrived in Tanzania. His groundbreaking research in Manyara was the first in-depth study of wild African elephant behavior. Alongside his wife, Oria, and daughters, Saba and Dudu, Iain immersed himself in the lives of elephants, discovering their personalities and intricate family bonds.
But paradise didn’t last. In the 1970s, a poaching epidemic swept across Africa, forcing Iain to shift from scientist to defender. He was the first to sound the alarm on the ivory poaching crisis, later documenting how Africa’s elephant population was halved between 1979 and 1989 — work that helped bring about the global ivory trade ban.
His legacy lives on through Save the Elephants, the NGO he founded in 1993, dedicated to securing a future for elephants and fostering coexistence between humans and wildlife.
Now, Iain’s extraordinary life and relentless fight for elephants take centre stage in an emotional and inspiring documentary. With unprecedented access, newly unearthed archive footage, and powerful interviews — including contributions from Jane Goodall and Iain’s daughters, Saba and Dudu Douglas-Hamilton — the film retraces Iain’s action-packed journey.
Premiering in France and Germany on ARTE’s prime-time documentary strand in 2024, the film will be distributed globally by Autentic. Its London premiere at the Royal Geographical Society in November 2024 marked another milestone in this remarkable story.
Directed by Nigel Pope, with Jackie Savery and Justin Purefoy as executive producers, and an evocative score by Glasgow-based composer Fraser Purdie, the film is proudly supported by Save the Elephants.
A Life Among Elephants has been named the winner of this year’s Flo Stone & Roger D. Stone Award for Artistry in Filmmaking by the DC Environmental Film Festival. The film will have a US theatrical premiere as part of the March 2025 DC Environmental Film Festival on Saturday, March 22, at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Screenings
US Theatrical Premiere