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Interview with Tim Gorski

Tim Gorski, a filmmaker and nature advocate, has made headlines with his popular films. We asked him to answer a few questions for our readers.

When did you know you wanted to be filmmaker? How did you go about pursing it as a career? 

Filmmaker Tim Gorski
Filmmaker Tim Gorski

I never really wanted to become a filmmaker. It just happened. While working for an ad agency in Florida I was haunted by the fact that the most important question… How many ways can I lie to the public to make them believe they are buying something they are not? It made we want to use my skills to sell something I believed in, rather than cheeseburgers and better deodorant. And what I believed in was environmental conservation and animal welfare.

I dug back into my roots, my connections with animals, and I realized I had skills that could be used in activism and those same skills could be used in filmmaking.

The challenge was deciding whether I am an activist with a camera or an actual filmmaker. And I don’t think I ever figured that part out.

Tell us how “How I Become an Elephant” came about?

It was slightly accidental and very serendipitous. I was vacationing on a small island in Thailand in 2004, when the tsunami struck. After weeks of partaking in rescues and recoveries I opted to head to Northern Thailand to get some rest. I met a remarkable woman there, named Lek. She was rescuing elephants from an industry I knew nothing about. It was the elephant trekking and entertainment industry, an industry that was growing exponentially in Thailand, and still is actually. I spent some time with her exploring the illegal smuggling of elephants between the border of Burma and Thailand. I spent time exploring the tourism industry in Thailand, the elephant trekking camps and shows. I explored the culture of a country that truly believes they love and revere elephants.

You can see the film here

When I left for the states I vowed to return and produce a film with her to help stop the madness that is responsible for countless elephant suffering and deaths. After countless failed pitches to Nat Geo, PBS, Animal Planet and others I was left very discouraged. No one wanted to support a film about a small Asian woman making a BIG difference. In 2009, at an Animal Rights conference in L.A. a friend introduced me to a 13 year-old elephant activist named Juliette West. She was planning a trip to visit Thailand and volunteer for Lek. I saw her as a mouthpiece for the elephants, a vehicle to The West. The rest is history. The film is a documentation of her journey to Asia to try and understand and help protect their elephants.

The film has won several awards and has gotten a lot of positive feedback, but how do you measure its success?

Good question. The success of documentary films without box office or broadcast release are always hard to measure. With New Media we do have access to metrics online. We can see that we have over 20,000 views from Thailand alone. But that doesn’t tell us whether we’ve been truly effective or not. Street Begging in Bangkok has since been outlawed. We’d like to believe our film had something to do with that. And it probably did. The Thai government was one of our earliest Facebook followers. We do get emails and messages weekly from viewers thanking us for enlightening them and pledging never to ride an elephant in Asia.

Promotional photo of How I Become an Elephant. / Tim
Promotional photo of How I Become an Elephant / Tim Gorski
Juliette West, star of How I Became an Elephant. / Tim Gorski.
Juliette West, star of How I Became an Elephant / Tim Gorski

Just two months ago a nine year-old girl in Washington DC saw our film and began her own campaign to help Lek’s organization in Thailand. Brazil screened our film in four locations and began an elephant rescue campaign of their own to clear their zoos and circuses of elephants.

Lek’s sanctuary has grown and she’s expanded to Cambodia and Burma. People often visit her projects after viewing our film. People want to have more compassionate and natural elephant experiences when they know they exist. Yet the ruthless elephant trekking industry in SE Asia continues to grow as tourism grows. So we have not reached our mark yet, unfortunately.

One trend I do see is there are more and more elephant films being made and broadcast in the west. So Western tourists are getting better information now, before they travel abroad. But sadly, that is not the same in the East.

What tips would you give other filmmakers who are looking to perfect their visual storytelling skills?

Story first. Know your message and the story you want to tell. Then know your market. And know why. Look at other successes and failures and evaluate them. The same story will likely not be received the same in America as it is in China for example.

You need to mold your story to the audience you want to reach. If you want people to see it, that is. I’ve been studying the ivory trail for some time and all the ivory films coming out. Only one film played to the world’s largest consumer of ivory, China. Yao Ming’s End of The Wild documentary was meant for a Chinese audience. The film was broadcast in China and online last week and so far has failed miserably. No one seems to be blogging about it at all in China. So, either the approach was wrong or the publicity campaign, or both. I’m not sure. I do hope it picks up momentum.

What are you currently working on?

I am currently in development on several projects with US and Chinese partners. All of them are centering on the illegal trade in ivory. One is a feature length documentary. One is a feature action-adventure film. And the third is an adventure travel show with Chinese kids in the African bush connecting with wildlife for the first time in their lives. That is actually the one I am most excited about. I love seeing kids connecting with nature.

Images that showcase Gorski’s upcoming projects. /  Tim Gorski.
Images that showcase Gorski’s upcoming projects. / Tim Gorski.
Images that showcase Gorski’s upcoming projects. /  Tim Gorski.
Images that showcase Gorski’s upcoming projects. / Tim Gorski.

What’s your go-to camera?

Changes every year it seems, depending on the project specs and camera operators. On our current film we are probably going to shoot on the RED PIC. Why? Because China wants 4k for this film. We will be working in the African bush. The EPIC packages we have at our disposal are…well…. epic.

Do you use any Manfrotto gear? If so, what?

I’ve always used Manfrotto sticks and heads. Why? Because they work. I beat on my equipment pretty hard in the bush or on the ice in Antarctica. Manfrotto sticks and heads are durable, light, and very reliable. I would love to explore some of the new lighting kits, mounts, and bags.

Check out more of Tim Gorski’s work through his IMDB page and follow him on Facebook.

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