Come celebrate an amazing year with the friends and crew of The Eyes of Thailand documentary film!

King of Thai Noodle

1268 Grant Ave

(between Fresno St & Vallejo St)

San Francisco, CA 94133

(415) 391-8219

7pm: Start the evening with a Thai-inspired cocktail, order some savory treats, and sample the delicious Elephant Chocolates by Choclatique.

8pm: World Premiere of the new work-in-progress clip of “The Eyes of Thailand”, featuring the August 16, 2009 footage of Mosha and Motala—two elephant landmine survivors—walking on their new prosthetic limbs!

A brief Q&A with Producer/Director Windy Borman will follow, then it’s time for cocktails, mingling and dancing.

Suggested donation: $10.00

Please note that the production phase of the film is complete and we’re actively raising the “finishing funds” to edit and distribute the documentary in 2010. All donations made at the event, or online through our fiscal sponsor, the San Francisco Film Society, are tax-deductible.

If you cannot attend the event—or wish to make a tax-deductible donation ahead of time—please visit The Eyes of Thailand web page and Click the “Donate Now” link. It will connect you to the secure online donation page for the SFFS.

To learn more about the film, read the production blog or view the trailer (different than the new clip we’re unveiling at the party), please visit www.eyesofthailand.com

You can also follow our progress on Facebook,  Indiegogo and Twitter.

Thank you for all your continued support and I hope to see you there!

Best,

Windy Borman

Producer, Writer and Director, The Eyes of Thailand

P.S. For those of you outside the San Francisco Bay Area, I will post the new clip on Vimeo for 24 Hours and release the password after the October 21^st event. Please stay tuned!

San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer, Robert Selna, recently visited the Elephant Nature Park in Thailand, where I filmed for 2 days in August (“Production Days 8-9: Elephant Nature Park“) and spent time with the founder, Lek Chailert.

Selna’s 5 Take-Aways from his visit are:

1Elephants recognize themselves as individuals in mirrors. The experiment was done recently at the Bronx Zoo on three elephants, who, upon seeing their own image in the mirror, responded with self-referential behaviors. One elephant, Maxine, used it to examine the inside of her mouth and back of her ear.

2One way elephants communicate is through infrasound – sound too low in frequency to be audible by humans. Infrasound can travel through the air, through water, through rock, through forest and through the earth. Elephant infrasonic communication can take place over a distance of up to 2.5 miles.

3Some elephants live in matriarchies. They have family units consisting of only adult females, young of both sexes, and a leader who is the oldest and most knowledgeable female.

4Elephants are emotional animals. They don’t weep, but they do pour fluids out of a gland located halfway between the eye and ear in times of great emotional excitement.

5Elephants are caring and empathetic animals. When a member of a social group falls – from illness, for instance – or becomes stuck in mud or water, others will move in and try to raise the debilitated animal to its feet and keep it moving. Sometimes adult females will care for – babysit – an infant or young elephant who has been orphaned or temporarily separated from its mother.

Soraida Salwala, founder of Friends of the Asian Elephant (FAE), is quoted in the Bangkok Post, speaking out against Thailand’s attempt to create trade goodwill with Japan by exporting 2 baby Thai Elephants to the Osaka Zoo.  Below is an excerpt from the September 13, 2009 article:

Soraida Salwala, founder of the Bangkok-based Friends of the Asian Elephant Foundation, urged the minister to scrap the planned jumbo export.

“The government should keep the elephants here, while Tokyo should stop asking for the jumbos,” said Ms Soraida.

In May 2009, Windy Borman, Producer/Director of The Eyes of Thailand, blogged about an article (“Thai government considers banning export of elephants“- May 13, 2009), which stated Thailand tabled a law that would ban exporting elephants from Thailand for 5 years, while it reconsidered how to protect its national icon.

The Osaka Zoo article goes on to state:

Elephants are one of 51 wild animals listed on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which bans the export and import of listed animals except for educational and conservation purposes. However, some imports and exports of protected wild animals have been conducted under government-to-government animal exchange programmes.

If the export goes through, it would be a major set-back to Soraida’s and other animal welfare groups’ goal of protecting the endangered Asian Elephants.

You can read the full article at: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/23766/charnchai-backs-japanese-request-to-raise-two-jumbos-at-osaka-zoo

Baby Namfon walks down to her new nursery near Motala.

Soraida emailed the following update on Baby Namfon, who was rejected by her mother and has been nursed at the FAE Elephant Hospital since this spring, and Motala, the elephant landmine survivor who received her her first prosthetic limb on August 15, 2009–10 years after stepping on a landmine:

Motala is quite interested in Baby Namfon. When Namfon walked down, the baby was only looking for what was new to her. Now, Motala is always watching the Baby and Namfon is fond of playing in the bath tub. She is getting to know Aunty Motala, standing there, talking together and climbs into the bath once again. What a sight!

Asso. Prof. Therdchai and his team [from the Prostheses Foundation] will be here this afternoon to work on Motala’s Prosthetic Leg. Hope the noises from the machines would not scare the Baby.

Soraida

Soraida, Motala and Asso. Prof. Therdchai all appear in the documentary, The Eyes of Thailand.  We are currently raising post-production funds to distribute the film in 2010.  Please continue to support our efforts by making a tax-deductible donation through the film’s fiscal sponsor, The San Francisco Film Society, by clicking here.

Thank you,

Windy Borman

Producer, Writer and Director, The Eyes of Thailand