“Through making the film Blackfish, I learned how unsuited orcas, the world’s largest ocean-dwelling mammals, are to captivity. I also came across so many issues that are hiding in plain sight. Elephants, the world’s largest land mammals, suffer equally in captivity. It is time to shine a giant spotlight on their suffering and put an end to the imprisonment and exploitation of elephants in zoos, in circuses, in tourism. The International Free the Elephants Conference & Film Festival is a wonderfulopportunity to mobilize efforts to create a path out of enslavement and foster a new way of seeing, a new way of appreciating and compassionately caring for these magnificent animals. My hope is that we take the “Blackfish” momentum and use it to help evolve us out of these inhumane practices.”