2016 Movie
Dir. Kief Davidson & Richard Ladkani · Austria, United States of America · Chichewa; Nyanja, English
As the value of ivory appreciated by the Chinese middle-class, the demand for it has skyrocketed. This brought elephants to a dire outlook: extinction in as early as the next 15 years. “Traders in ivory actually want extension in elephants, the less elephants there are the more the price rises” as one of the commentators in the film says. To bring awareness to this threat, filmmakers went undercover for 16 months and followed the ivory from where it was stolen to where it hits the shelves of Hong Kong. The result is a genuine thriller, far more gripping than you’d expect from a documentary. It portrays the brave and hopeful men and women trying to combat these atrocities, the battle they may be losing, and all the obstacles they face. An extremely important watch.
Wildlife activists and investigators put their lives on the line to battle the illegal African ivory trade, in this suspenseful on-the-ground documentary.
"The you-are-there approach to tackling this subject means that The Ivory Game largely avoids lecturing its viewers; instead, the harrowing experience speaks for itself."
— Eric Kohn
"A documentary that plays with the gripping pacing and glossy production values of a suspenseful, international thriller."
— Christy Lemire
Bilal Zouheir is the founder of A Good Movie to Watch. He is US-based and a member of the Nevada Film Critics Society. He grew up in Morocco, where he learned English from watching movies. Bilal's work with A Good Movie to Watch is focused on offering an alternative to streaming algorithms, which are often used as commercial tools by streaming services.
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