Netflix doc 'The Ivory Game' exposes the dark underbelly of ivory trafficking
The Ivory Game would just be another heart-pounding crime thriller if its subject matter wasn’t so depressingly true.
The Netflix documentary, which counts Leonardo DiCaprio as executive producer, exposes the underground world of ivory trafficking. The industry threatens to permanently wipe out African elephants as poachers slaughter more animals for their tusks.
Poachers killed around 100,000 African elephants between 2010 and 2012 — about the same as killing one elephant every 15 minutes, the United Nations Environment Program has estimated.
The Ivory Game debuts in theaters and for streaming on Nov. 4.
Directors Richard Ladkani and Kief Davidson spent 16 months filming undercover in three countries, with the help of surveillance experts, wildlife activists and frontline rangers.
The crew followed poachers on the hunt in Africa and traced smugglers en route to Asia. The film also exposes vendors hawking tusks in China, the world’s main market for ivory. There, a single tusk can fetch up to $200,000.
Jane Goodall, the renowned British primatologist, is an ambassador of the documentary. She said she has come to understand what “emotional creatures” elephants are after watching them for “hours and hours.”
“It’s not just a species facing extinction,” she said in a press release. “It’s massive individual suffering.”
