Yesterday, we gave our 1,200+ Facebook Fans an opportunity to attend an Online Sneak Peek of the newly edited film trailer for “The Eyes of Thailand“. Thanks to Remedy Editorial in San Francisco, CA, we unveiled a dramatic, thrilling new trailer that featured footage from the 2010 documentary production trip to Thailand and Laos. It featured Soraida Salwala (FAE), Dr. Therchai Jivacite (Prostheses Foundation), Richard Lair (TECC), Galen Garwood, Paul Hannon (Mines Action Canada) and Reth Tun (ICBL).

Special thanks to: Jeffrey Boyette and Scott Compton (Remedy Editorial), Ayumi Ashley (Color Correction), Marc Pittman (Sound Mix), and Amie Penwell (Music).

Next steps:
“The Eyes of Thailand” is currently in post-production and we hope to have a complete film ready for film festival submissions in September. You can help us by:

1. Inviting your friends to “Like” the Facebook page.
2. Following us on Twitter.
3. Making a tax-deductible donation to the film, via our fiscal sponsor (the San Francisco Film Society), by clicking the Donate link on our website.
4. Contacting Director/Producer Windy Borman if you have leads to foundations, corporate sponsors or wish to inquire about investment details.

If you missed the Sneak Peek, have no fear. The trailer goes live across the internet on March 13th for Thailand’s National Elephant Day.

Thanks for joining us and stay tuned for more exclusive updates!

-Windy Borman
Director/Producer, “The Eyes of Thailand”

More info:
D.V.A. Productions, in Association with Indiewood Pictures, is proud to present the powerful and hard-hitting feature documentary “The Eyes of Thailand”.

“The Eyes of Thailand” is the inspirational story of one woman’s quest to help two elephant landmine survivors–Motala and Baby Mosha–walk on their own four legs. Treating their wounds was only part of the journey; building elephant-sized prostheses was another. Directed and Produced by Windy Borman. Produced by Tim VandeSteeg.

FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/eyesofthailand
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/eyesofthailand
Website: http://www.eyesofthailand.com/

Dear Friends, Family and Elephant Supporters,

As you know by now, I’m going back to Thailand to film the two newest elephant landmine survivors at the Friends of the Asian Elephant (FAE) Elephant Hospital (Oct 31-Nov 4) and then it’s on to Laos to attend the Youth Leaders Forum for the International Campaign to Ban landmines (Nov 7-12). But I need your help to get there!

In the past week we’ve raised $1,500 of the $3,000 needed for the 16-day documentary trip. Thank you for this amazing show of support!

We still have a ways to go, so if you’re still looking to donate or invest in the film, if you’ve always wanted to be in show biz, and if you want to help make a movie you’d be proud to see in the theaters, please help us today.

1. Donate through the film’s fiscal sponsor, the San Francisco Film Society. All donations are tax-deductible and you can donate using a debit or credit card through a secure link via The Eyes of Thailand web site: http://eyesofthailand.com
2. Transfer stock to the film via the SF Film Society. It’s also tax-deductible.

No donation is too small and all donations are tax-deductible! In recognition of your support, I am offering the following VIP perks to donors:

• $25 = Personal thank you note from yours truly, plus a signed promotional postcard—it’ll be a collector’s item one day!
• $100 = All of the above, plus thanked in the film’s credits.
• $500 = All of the above, plus “Special Thanks” in the film’s credits and a signed DVD of the finished film.
• $1,000 = All of the above, plus listed in the Partners section of The Eyes of Thailand web site.
• $5,000+ = All of the above, plus a private screening for you and friends, plus a Q&A with me about the film.

Next, I’m hoping you can help me spread the word about my trip. The October 8, 2010 blog post contains a copy of the Press Release about my upcoming trip.  Please read it and then share the official link with your press contacts.  We’re hoping this goes global, so don’t be shy!

Finally, I’ll be blogging and posting updates on Facebook and Twitter from Thailand and Laos, so you can follow my progress. You can access all the updates via “The Eyes of Thailand” web site.

Thank you for continuing to support my quest to tell the world about the plight of the Asian Elephants and the ongoing threat of landmines. I could not do it without you!

Gratefully,

Windy Borman

Director/Producer, The Eyes of Thailand

windy@dvaproductions.com

http://eyesofthailand.com

P.S. Donations of any size help and all donations are tax-deductible when made through the San Francisco Film Society. You can donate by either clicking the “Please Donate” link on the The Eyes of Thailand web site. Thank you so much! Krup kum ka!

Dear Friends, Family and Elephant Supporters,

I’m going back to Thailand.

On September 11, 2010, another elephant stepped on a landmine along the Thai-Burma (Myanmar) border, thus becoming the fourth elephant landmine survivor to be treated at FAE’s Elephant Hospital in Thailand. This latest victim (Boonmee) joins three others: Mae ka pae, who stepped on a landmine in August, Motala and Baby Mosha.

Thanks to generous donations, I traveled to Thailand in August 2009 to film Motala and Mosha receive their prosthetic limbs for my documentary The Eyes of Thailand. I optimistically thought I could end the film with the happy ending of the elephants taking their first steps on their new prostheses. Instead I need to return to film two new survivors and try to unravel why elephant landmine accidents have increased in the past 2 months.

My current plan is to travel to Thailand October 28 – November 7 with four other Elephant Hospital volunteers who specialize in TTouch, an effective form of animal bodywork that relieves pain and assists with animals’ recovery from illness or injury.  We’re hoping it helps landmine survivors, too.

I’ll wrap up the trip by attending the International Campaign to Ban Landmines conference in Laos, November 8-12. This will enable me to get the global perspective on landmine removal, as well as interview Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan and Nobel Prize-winner Jody Williams, key voices for landmine and cluster bomb removal.

To date we’ve raised US $530 of the US $3,000 needed to accomplish this 16-day documentary trip. Last summer we raised $3,000 in one weekend to get me back to Thailand to film Mosha and Motala getting their prostheses, so I’m confident we can raise that much before October 14^th, but I need your help. This time there are two ways you can help:

1. Donate through the film’s fiscal sponsor, the San Francisco Film Society. All donations are tax-deductible and you can donate using a debit or credit card through a secure link via The Eyes of Thailand web site: http://eyesofthailand.com
2. Transfer stock to the film via the SF Film Society. It’s also tax-deductible.

I need to purchase my ticket (at the very latest) by October 14, 2010, so please contact me if you have any question or would like more details about the above options. Additionally, if you have any leads to family foundations or corporate sponsorships, please email me directly as listed below.

In recognition of your support, I am offering the following VIP perks to donors:

• $25 = Personal thank you note from yours truly, plus a signed promotional postcard—it’ll be a collector’s item one day!
• $100 = All of the above, plus thanked in the film’s credits.
• $500 = All of the above, plus “Special Thanks” in the film’s credits and a signed DVD of the finished film.
• $1,000 = All of the above, plus listed in the Partners section of The Eyes of Thailand web site.
• $5,000+ = All of the above, plus a private screening for you and friends, plus a Q&A with me about the film.

I will be blogging and posting updates on Facebook and Twitter from Thailand and Laos, so please follow my progress.  You can access all the updates via The Eyes of Thailand’s web site: http://eyesofthailand.com

Thank you for continuing to support my quest to tell the world about the plight of the Asian Elephants and the ongoing threat of landmines. I could not do it without you!

With immense gratitude,

Windy Borman

Director/Producer, The Eyes of Thailand

Eyes of Thailand, LLC | P.O. Box 420395 | San Francisco, CA 94142

windy@dvaproductions.com

http://eyesofthailand.com

P.S. Donations of any size help and all donations are tax-deductible when made through the San Francisco Film Society. You can donate by either clicking the “Please Donate” link on the The Eyes of Thailand web site or by mailing a check to the address above. Please make the checks payable to the “San Francisco Film Society” and include “The Eyes of Thailand” in the Memo Line. Thank you so much! Krup kum ka!

10-year old Boonmee stepped on a landmine along the Thai-Burma border.

On August 5, 2010, I wrote that Mae ka pae, a 22-year old elephant that stepped on a landmine along the Thia-Myanmar border, had arrived at FAE’s Elephant Hospital.  Sadly, I have to report that a fourth elephant, Boonmee, a 10-year old Thai elephant who was accompanying her mother to work in Burma, has also stepped on a landmine and is being treated at FAE.

Boonmee is the 4th elephant landmine survivor currently at FAE's Elephant Hospital.

Boonmee (10) joins elephant landmine survivors Mae ka pae (22), Motala (49) and Baby Mosha (5) at FAE. Motala and Mosha each received a prosthetic limb from the Prostheses Foundation in 2009, a process I filmed for “The Eyes of Thailand” documentary.

If I wasn’t so stunned and sad, I’d be outraged that this keeps happening.

Due to this recent increase in elephant landmine accidents, I’m going back to Thailand in October – November 2010 to film more footage.  I thought I could finish the film with a happy ending–when Motala and Mosha each walked on their prostheses–but now I see that isn’t the case because elephant landmine injuries keep happening.

In order to return to Thailand this fall, I need to raise $3,000, so I’m asking for your help.  Can you make a tax-deductible donation to the film to help me travel to the Elephant Hospital to film the new survivors? All donations are tax-deductible through the film’s fiscal sponsor, the San Francisco Film Society, and donations of any size help. Please make your tax-deductible donation here.

Thank you for helping me tell this much-needed story about the plight of Asian Elephants and the ongoing threat of landmines!

Sincerely,

Windy Borman

Director/Producer “The Eyes of Thailand”

Mosha, one of the elephants featured in "The Eyes of Thailand" elephant documentary.

June 30, 2010– We’re in the final hours of our fundraising push…

In order to help independent films reach their fund-raising goals, IndieGoGo has offered to donate an additional 5% to any film that hits its goal by TODAY (June 30, 2010).

We’ve set a goal of $2,000 and we think we can make it–especially since we’re already over 80% of the way there!

While this goal will not cover ALL our expenses, it will help us:

• transcribe all 50 hours of footage,
• pay to finish our web site upgrades, and
• start writing the script for the video editor

We’ve raised $1,635 to date, so we only need $365 to go to hit our goal.  Do you have $5, $10, $25 or $50 to help us reach $2,000 by midnight TONIGHT (June 30, 2010)?

I know many of you have already donated to The Eyes of Thailand via financial and/or in-kind donations, so you are aware that ALL Donations are tax-deductible via our fiscal sponsor, the San Francisco Film Society. But can you find it in your heart and your wallet to help us reach this new milestone?

We still have a long way to go if we want to be able to release a high-quality film on par with other Academy-Award winning films, such as The Cove (2009), but with your help I’m optimistic we can do it!

Every donation brings us one step closer to releasing The Eyes of Thailand and educating the world about the plight of Asian elephants and the on-going threat of landmines.

If everyone reading this blog donates $10 by midnight PST, we’ll make our goal! Please show your support by donating TODAY!

Thank you! Krup kum ka!

Windy Borman

Director & Producer, The Eyes of Thailand

P.S. Thank you for supporting our quest to produce and distribute “The Eyes of Thailand” elephant documentary. As always, if you have any leads to family foundations, corporate sponsorships or would like to discuss investing in the film, please leave a comment and I’ll contact you off-blog. Cheers!

Soraida Salwala, founder of FAE's Elephant Hospital in Thailand, comforts Motala, an elephant landmine survivor, as the Prostheses Foundation fits her with a prosthetic limb.

June 28, 2010– In order to help independent films reach their fund-raising goals, IndieGoGo has offered to donate an additional 5% to any film that hits its goal by June 30, 2010.

We’ve set a goal of $2,000 and we think we can make it–especially since we’re already a 75% of the way there!

While this goal will not cover ALL our expenses, it will help us:

• transcribe all 50 hours of footage,
• pay to finish our web site upgrades, and
• start writing the script for the video editor

We’ve raised $1,570 to date, so we only need $430 to go to hit our goal.  Do you have $5, $10, $25 or $50 to help us reach $2,000 by June 30, 2010?

I know many of you have already donated to The Eyes of Thailand via financial and/or in-kind donations, so you are aware that ALL Donations are tax-deductible via our fiscal sponsor, the San Francisco Film Society. But can you find it in your heart and your wallet to help us reach this new milestone?

We still have a long way to go if we want to be able to release a high-quality film on par with other Academy-Award winning films, such as The Cove (2009), but with your help I’m optimistic we can do it!

Every donation brings us one step closer to releasing The Eyes of Thailand and educating the world about the plight of Asian elephants and the on-going threat of landmines. Please show your support by donating TODAY!

Sincerely,

Windy Borman

Director & Producer, The Eyes of Thailand

P.S. Thank you for supporting our quest to produce and distribute “The Eyes of Thailand” elephant documentary. As always, if you have any leads to family foundations, corporate sponsorships or would like to discuss investing in the film, please leave a comment and I’ll contact you off-blog. Cheers!

Motala, an elephant landmine survivor, takes her first step on her prosthesis (August 2009).

June 25, 2010– In order to help independent films reach their fund-raising goals, IndieGoGo has offered to donate an additional 5% to any film that hits its goal by June 30, 2010.

We’ve set a goal of $2,000 and we think we can make it–especially since we’re already a 75% of the way there!

While this goal will not cover ALL our expenses, it will help us:

• transcribe all 50 hours of footage,
• pay to finish our web site upgrades, and
• start writing the script for the video editor

We’ve raised $1,545 to date, so we only $455 to go to hit our goal.  Can you help us reach $2,000 by June 30, 2010?

I know many of you have already donated to The Eyes of Thailand via financial and/or in-kind donations, so you are aware that ALL Donations are tax-deductible via our fiscal sponsor, the San Francisco Film Society. But can you find it in your heart and your wallet to help us reach this new milestone?

We still have a long way to go if we want to be able to release a high-quality film on par with other Academy-Award winning films, such as The Cove (2009), but with your help I’m optimistic we can do it!

Every donation brings us one step closer to releasing The Eyes of Thailand and educating the world about the plight of Asian elephants and the con-going threat of landmines. Please show your support by donating TODAY!

Sincerely,

Windy Borman

Director & Producer, The Eyes of Thailand

P.S. Thank you for supporting our quest to produce and distribute “The Eyes of Thailand” elephant documentary. As always, if you have any leads to family foundations, corporate sponsorships or would like to discuss investing in the film, please leave a comment and I’ll contact you off-blog. Cheers!

May 10, 2010–I am happy to announce another fundraising opportunity for The Eyes of Thailand. From May 1 – June 30, 2010, EarthLust will donate the TOTAL cost of your purchases to the film, through our fiscal sponsor (the San Francisco Film Society) when you type “EOT” in the Coupon section of the online checkout page.

EarthLust produces stainless steel, eco-friendly, re-useable water bottles.  They are made from 100% BPA-free, food-grade stainless steel with very chic designs. They even have a 13-oz. elephant water bottle for all you elephant fans!

This is a great way to upgrade from your plastic water bottles and support The Eyes of Thailand, too!

Please visit EarthLust’s web site and order your elephant-friendly, eco-friendly, stainless steel water bottle today.

Thank you so much for your continued support! If you haven’t checked out the film’s new web site and trailer, please click here.

Sincerely,

Windy Borman

Director/Producer, The Eyes of Thailand

Screenshot for the trailer.

April 16, 2010– D.V.A. Productions, in Association with Indiewood Pictures, is proud to present the powerful and hard-hitting feature documentary The Eyes of Thailand. The newly edited trailer features:

• Soraida Salwala, founder of the Friends of the Asian Elephant (FAE) Elephant Hospital
• Dr. Preecha, a veterinarian at FAE
• Staff from the Prostheses Foundation
• Motala, a 48-year old elephant landmine survivor; and
• Baby Mosha, a 3-year old elephant landmine survivor.

Please click here to watch the trailer, rate it and leave comments. It takes just a few moments and helps increase our overall rating.

The Eyes of Thailand is the inspirational story of one woman’s quest to help two elephant landmine survivors, Motala and Baby Mosha walk on their own four legs. Treating their wounds was only part of the journey; building elephant-sized prostheses was another. Directed and Produced by Windy Borman. Produced by Tim VandeSteeg. Music by Amie Penwell.

FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/eyesofthailand
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/eyesofthailand
Website: http://www.eyesofthailand.com

Enjoy!

-Windy Borman

P.S. The Eyes of Thailand is currently in post-production, and we’re raising funds to edit it so we can premiere the film in 2011.

Please support our work by making a tax-deductible donation today! We’ve set a fund-raising goal of $2,000 by June 30, 2010. If we reach it IndieGoGo will donate an additional 5% to the project! Please donate here: http://www.indiegogo.com/eyesofthailand

April 14, 2010–Here are two pictures of Motala’s new prosthesis, complete with pedicured toenails!

As you can see, the elephant landmine survivor Motala is getting around well and she continues to enjoy her sunbaths at the Friends of the Asian Elephant (FAE) Elephant Hospital.

As always, we’ll keep you posted on her progress!

-Windy Borman

Director/Producer The Eyes of Thailand

P.S. Please consider supporting our work on the documentary film, The Eyes of Thailand, by making a tax-deductible donation today! We’ve set a goal of raising $2,000 by June 30, 2010 and if we reach it IndieGoGo will donate an additional 5% to the project! Please donate here: http://www.indiegogo.com/eyesofthailand