Our Approach
We partnered with Vulcan Productions, Elephants Without Borders, and Off the Fence to craft an immersive, emotional film following Naledi, a newborn elephant orphaned in Botswana’s Okavango Delta.
Filmed over many months in the wild, Naledi blended stunning wildlife cinematography, character-driven storytelling, and cutting-edge conservation science. The goal: to build a powerful connection between one young elephant’s fight for survival and the fate of an entire species.
We worked closely with Vulcan and the field teams to ensure the story captured both raw intimacy and broader urgency, weaving in findings from The Great Elephant Census to contextualise the scale of the threat, and showcasing the dedication of scientists and caretakers fighting to save Naledi’s future.
The Results
Naledi: A Baby Elephant’s Tale premiered at major international festivals including Jackson Hole, Wildscreen,
and the Virginia Film Festival. It earned critical acclaim and was nominated for multiple awards, most notably,
an Emmy for Outstanding Nature Documentary.
Broadcast worldwide and translated into multiple languages, Naledi became a cornerstone of Vulcan’s broader campaign
for elephant conservation. It is now used by educators, NGOs, conservationists, and policy advocates across the globe
as a tool to raise awareness and inspire change.
By turning cold statistics into a singular, unforgettable story, Naledi transformed public understanding of the elephant crisis, demonstrating how cinematic storytelling can shift perspectives, ignite empathy, and help protect what’s left of the wild.
CASE STUDY:
NALEDI - A BABY ELEPHANT’S TALE
The Challenge
Between 2014 and 2016, Vulcan Inc., founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen,
led the largest continent-wide wildlife survey in over 40 years: The Great Elephant Census. The results were devastating. Africa’s savannah elephant population had collapsed to just 352,271, with losses as high as 50% in some regions.
Poaching, habitat destruction, and fragmented conservation efforts were driving an 8% annual decline, pushing elephants to the edge of extinction.
The data was clear, but data alone doesn’t move hearts. Vulcan needed a story that would humanise the numbers, shift the narrative, and inspire global action.
The result was Naledi: A Baby Elephant’s Tale, a deeply personal feature-length documentary designed to connect audiences emotionally to a species in crisis.