In Taiji, Japan, the dolphin hunting industry has shifted from killing dolphins for their meat to a more lucrative, but equally controversial industry—the capture of live animals for overseas “dolphin shows.”
In this video, we travel to the town made infamous in the Oscar-winning documentary “The Cove” with Ren Yabuki, the director of Life Investigation Agency, a Japanese animal rights NGO and the only group tasked with monitoring this year’s dolphin hunts.
There’s a dark side to the internet, and you probably don’t even know it exists. Look behind the positive veneer of social media, communication apps and platforms that have made our lives easier and more connected, and you’ll find criminals using the same apps and platforms to run illicit and dangerous activities.
Sextortion syndicates target victims globally through social media. Illegal wildlife trades thrive on social consumer marketplaces. Digital black markets operate anonymously using software designed for press privacy and freedom to sell drugs. Secret child pornography rings run rampant in secret, closed groups and private chats.
This explosive new series lifts the lid on how criminal organisations are thriving in this new digital frontier.
Episode One – The Queen of Sextortion
Sextortion was invented by one woman in the Philippines, Maria Caparas. She turned the idea of making friends online and recording explicit video chats into a profitable blackmail and extortion scam that could not exist without social media. She now runs a mini empire seemingly beyond the reach of authorities, that has led to many suicides.
Episode Two – Wildlife Clickbait
They may look like ordinary posts of exotic pets for sale on social media. But they are feeding a growing trade in illegal and endangered animals in Malaysia and beyond. This criminal industry is worth billions and is jeopardising attempts to protect endangered species.
Episode Three – Black Market Boom
Drugs, guns, counterfeit documents and much more are sold on dark web marketplaces that run on anonymous browsers and using cryptocurrency. AlphaBay was the biggest marketplace, transacting over US$800,000 in a day enabling its founder to live a luxury lifestyle in anonymity, until international law enforcement caught up with him.
Episode Four – The Candyman
It was one of 640 million closed groups on Facebook. Hiding behind the anonymity, the creator of child pornography group Loli Candy and its 7,000 members hid their activities on Facebook and Whatsapp – the dissemination of horrifying images of abuse. While they were eventually bought to justice many more thrive.
When Russian forces invaded Ukraine and bombed Kyiv, film director Stas Kapralov’s family dog, Nika, ran away… Determined to find her, Stas sets out into the devastation and documents his journey as he joins volunteers helping to rescue animals. Becoming a part of their cause, Stas films the trials and successes of the volunteers as he continues his search for Nika, which takes him to ‘Sirus’ Animal Shelter, the largest in Europe, housing 3,500 animals, and still receiving emaciated and hungry dogs daily. There he meets Alexandra, the shelter director, who regularly risks her life to find food for the animals and is determined never to abandon them. Alexandra’s iron inspires Stas, and even though he is unable to locate Nika, he does not give up hope and decides to take a more active role in helping the volunteers and animals in need.
Joining forces with another volunteer, Olena, Stas documents and aids in rescuing a blind and abandoned lion, Ruru, as she’s brought across the Ukrainian border to Poland. Later, he meets Alex, a volunteer who helped Kyiv inhabitants escape the city at the start of the war and now risks his life rescuing cats left behind by their owners… Among the rubble of a bombed and burned stables, Stas hears Yura’s story, whose horses were like family members, many dying in the bombings, as he now searches for a safe home for them… In another instance, Stas journeys to Harkov, experiencing mortar shelling first-hand, as he becomes part of urgent evacuations of animals at a zoo actively being bombed, where two volunteers had been killed in previous days…
What begins as a journey motivated by the disappearance of his dog, Nika, becomes a mission to document and aid in a humanitarian movement to help as many animals as possible in Ukraine. Documenting and participating in this journey, Stas discovers stories of altruism and humanity amidst the harshest landscape of war… and by the end of his journey, Stas finally finds out what happened to his dog Nika.
With exclusive access to the Dallas Safari Club we go behind the scenes into the hidden world of big game hunting, where millionaires bid to hunt endangered species. We follow them from the auction room to the African continent where they claim that their sport actually saves lives in bringing much needed funds to impoverished communities, and help in the conservation effort.
Each year, the club itself comes under intense media scrutiny and severe criticism for it’s annual big game auction, and it is here that the arguments in favour of trophy hunting can be heard at their most impassioned.
In this revelatory documentary we will enter the world of the Dallas Safari Club, who for the first time are letting a documentary film crew into their inner circle. With this access we have an opportunity for some of the world’s most prolific (professional and amateur) Trophy Hunters to tell their side of this story. Through them we’ll seek to shine a light on the big questions in this debate. Does trophy hunting actually help or hinder conservation? In this most expensive of ‘sports’ where does their money go and who ultimately benefits? This revealing and at times shocking film will explore the world of this close knit and fiercely loyal community, where the legal and the moral are often conflated and Hunters are revered as professional athletes.
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Contact us to request full treatment, more screening material, information on broadcast partners, budget, finance plan or any other matters relating to potential partnerships.
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Director: Des Henderson
Producer: Ed Stobbart
Executive Producer: Kazz Basma
Distributor: Sideways Film
Country of Production: UK
Language: English
We are looking for: Co-Pro and Pre Sales
Stage of Project: Early Development
Delivery Date: TBA
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Key Biographies
Director – Des Henderson
Des is an award wining director with ten years experience originating and directing hard-hitting and startling factual content for a range of broadcasters, including the BBC, C4 and RTE. Des is currently in post-production on his latest feature-documentary that will screen at film festivals in the fall. Credits include: Project Children (Currently in Production), Keepin’ ‘Er Country (BBC 2015), Hit the Stage (BBC 2013), Life Patrol – BBC (2012).
Producer – Ed Stobart
Ed is a multi award winning producer and director who has delivered successful, high quality series and films for all the UK’s major terrestrial and digital broadcasters, and his work has been seen in over 150 territories around the world. He executive produces all of Alleycats output – BBC4’s Killing me Softly, The Roberta Flack Story; Here Comes the Summer, The Undertones Story; BBC1/CBBC Music City/Hit the Stage, BBC1 Longest Night and the award wining BBC1 NI/RTE1 Life Patrol and CBBC My Life: The Big Climb are highlights. Among his many award winning credits, Ed Stobart Executive Produced Pink Saris, directed by Kim Longinotto, which was BAFTA and Grierson nominated, winner of the Prix Europa, selected at numerous festivals including IDFA and Sheffield and broadcast on HBO, BBC and elsewhere worldwide.
Executive Producer – Kazz Basma
Kazz Basma set up Sideways Film in 2010 to distribute social justice and dramatic narrative documentaries. He has licensed films to broadcasters, all rights buyers, the education market and online on every continent and have been screened at prestigious festivals worldwide including Sundance, Tribeca, IDFA, Hot Docs and Sheffield Doc Fest. He attends at least twelve documentary festivals each year where he is regularly invited to speak on panels and at round-tables, serves as a guest lecturer at the London College of Communication and is an invited expert at EAVE (the European Audio Visual Entrepreneurs network).