Africa's Elephant Kingdom

Africa's Elephant Kingdom is a 1998 IMAX film documenting life under the lives of African elephants. The film was produced by Discovery Channel. The film is set in Tanzania and Kenya, and is narrated by an elephant named "Old Bull" (voiced by Avery Brooks). The film was directed by Michael Caulfield.[1]Africa's Elephant Kingdom is an inspirational large screen encounter with a herd of African elephants in the plains of Kenya. Shot by an Australian production crew, this is the first large format film from Discovery Channel Pictures. This film covers the expedition of an elephant family through seasons of ravaging drought to rapid rain, back to peaceful plains again.

Loxodonta africana

In this film there are memorable moments of tragedy, good humor and drama while extended family go through the epic cycle of life that is special to this part of Africa. The film director Michael Caulfield uses the enticing quality of the large screen experience to bring out the image of the Kenyan plains. sounds of the elephants' daily lives appear suddenly onto the big screen, calf taking their first steps taking their first tentative steps under the watchful eyes -- and trunks -- of mothers, aunts and cousins; matriarchs charging in defense of their families; young males jousting in mating rituals; elephants weakening as the drought lengthens, then rejoicing playfully when replenishing rains finally arrive; bulls knocking down trees to feed.

"One bull simply put its head against a tree, drove straight forward and, roots and all, it popped out of the ground like a cork," said Caulfield.

Such displays of brute force might be expected from these massive mammals. But the film also reveals gentler, less obvious traits that hint at an intelligence rarely before shown. Elephants often pass by sets of elephant bones, for example, but occasionally they stop.

"They'd pore over them -- the babies, the females, the bulls, everybody," said Caulfield. "Their trunks go into the crevices of the skull, they pick up the bones, put them in their mouths and taste them. Sometimes they'd snap them in two. There was one set with the tusks still left and they'd push their trunks down and do enormous sucking, trying to kind of get out the marrow of the elephant that was once there. You begin to think, 'What's going on here? What are they thinking?' Then you consider perhaps it's memory, and as soon as you start talking about things like memory you can forget any pretense that they don't have some kind of corollaries to human behavior. They behave in ways that seem accessible to not just the human mind but the human spirit."

Caulfield and his crew were able to gain access to the elephants thanks largely to the efforts of the film's scientific consultant and veteran zoologist, Dr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton. His knowledge and instincts allowed them to capture some of the film's most intense moments, from the terrifying charge of a threatened matriarch to the struggle to keep an infant elephant from dying.

From the thrilling, large-screen aerial views of Mount Kilimanjaro to the intimate shots of the herd at play Africa's Elephant Kingdom demonstrates the power of the IMAX film medium.[2]