BY DAVID SOMMERSTEIN – North Country Public Radio
A SUNY Potsdam alum is returning to campus Monday to show a new documentary that sounds the alarm about endangered forest elephants in central Africa. The elephants are threatened by logging of their habitat but also because poachers kill them for the illegal ivory trade.
Forest elephants in Dzanga Bai, in Central African Republic, are featured in Todd McGrain’s new documentary, Elephant Path. Photo: provided
Director Todd McGrain. Photo: providedDirector Todd McGrain’s film, “Elephant Path,” is showing Monday at 7:15 pm at the Roxy Theater in Potsdam. McGrain will conduct a Q&A after the film. The event is part of the Cinema 10 film series and the LoKo Arts festival at SUNY Potsdam.
McGrain is a sculptor who mixes environmentalism with his art. He’s best known for his Lost Bird Project, a series of large-scale bronze memorials to extinct birds that are placed in the areas where the species were last seen.
McGrain spoke with David Sommerstein about his first full-length film. He said it was through the bird project that he became aware of forest elephants facing extinction.
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