Help Amplify the Voices of Thailand's Elephants - A Documentary Film Project
Donations for the project will Help create awareness and support for the welfare of the elephant to the Thai youth, Thai public, as well as people abroad.10countries
Period of time
Apr 22, 2025 - Aug 31, 2025Location
Nationwide in ThailandSDG Goals
Beneficiary groups of the project
Give a voice to Thailand’s endangered national animal and their keepers by helping to screen the feature-film documentary “Unspoken Souls”, a story that follows the journey of a 22-year-old elephant keeper who strives to give his 55 domesticated elephants a life free of abuse and forced labor. With the power of storytelling, this entertaining documentary aims to empower Thai people’s awareness for the conservation of their national animal and the importance of sustainable tourism.
Social issues
Thailand’s Endangered National Animal
In the early 1900s, it is estimated that there were over 100,000 elephants in Thailand. Today, according to government statistics, there are roughly 5400 domesticated elephants and 4500 wild elephants left, making them an endangered animal that is only two categories away from disappearing from this planet. While wild elephants are protected by laws such as the Wildlife Conservation and Protection Act B.E.2562, the survival of domesticated elephants solely depends on Thailand’s tourism industry.
Surviving in the 26 Billion Baht Elephant Tourism Industry
For many decades, the tourism industry was not so kind to the elephants. Focused on activities of entertainment for the country’s guests, elephants had to be abusively trained to carry tourists for hours without rest and perform unnatural circus tricks like walking on their two feet and painting flowers. Surviving was not easy for the elephants nor their keepers who had no choice but to put their elephants through hard labor to make a living.
However, over the last decade, the elephant tourism industry has been slowly transforming by abandoning elephant riding and circus performances for tourist activities that are focused on the health care management of the elephants. With this movement, there seemed to be much more hope for the elephants. But then came the Covid-19 Pandemic.
The Need for Greater National Awareness & Support
During the collapse of the tourism industry, hundreds of elephants not only starved but were neglected of proper care. Furthermore, it was not just the elephants but also their keepers who lost their livelihoods. For the domesticated elephants, the pandemic was a national crisis that threatened their very existence and proved the limits of the tourism industry as a means to ensure their survival.
As might be expected, the elephants and keepers cried for help from outside the tourism industry. But these voices struggled to reach beyond the jungles into the cities and beyond the tourism industry to the attention of the public, revealing the distance of the Thai people to their elephants and the need for greater national awareness and support. So how do we close this distance between the Thai people and their elephants? How do we create more public support to ensure the future survival of Thailand’s national animal
Unspoken Souls - A Documentary Film to Help Give the Elephants and Keepers a Voice
Unspoken Souls” is an upcoming 85 minute international feature-film documentary that tells the journey of a young Thai elephant keeper striving to give his elephants a dignified life. It is a project of 4 years in the making by a Japanese family who have lived in Chiang Mai, the heart of Thailand’s elephant tourism, for over 20 years. As a communication project, the film aims to do the following.
1) Showcase the financial, medical, and environmental struggles faced by Thailand’s domesticated elephants and their keepers.
2) Help change the image of Thailand’s elephant tourism industry by promoting its positive transformation towards a focus on the healthcare management of the elephants.
3) Reveal the need for greater national awareness and support for the welfare of the domesticated elephants that have a long history with the Thai people.
Synopsis
The film is a story about “Niew”, an ordinary Thai youth, whose father ran one of the most popular elephant circus camps in Chiang Mai. Unfortunately when his father dies, Niew finds himself with a nightmare of a responsibility - the lives of 55 elephants. Many might see the elephants as money-making machines. He wants to give the elephants a life of freedom that they’ve never known, but without experience and money, he needs all the help he can get.
Obtaining the support of Lek Chailert, a world renowned conservationist, Niew embarks on a journey to change his father’s elephant riding and circus show business into a sanctuary. But the challenge proves to be colossal for the young elephant keeper as he faces challenges such as the care of an injured elephant and the lack of finances to feed the 55 elephants. Persevering through these adversities with the help of Lek, his mentor, Niew strives to carve a future of hope for his elephants.
The Okuno Family
The project is led by Yasuhiko Okuno (father), Mieko Saho (mother), and Koh Okuno (son), who moved as a family from Yokohama, Japan to Chiang Mai in 2004.
Yasuhiko Okuno is a documentary photographer, videographer, and producer who has travelled all over the world to cover social issues including the end of Apartheid in South Africa, the marginalized leprosy community in South Korea, and orphans with HIV in Thailand. He is currently the managing director of K.M. Tomyam, the main production company of this documentary.
Mieko Saho is an author and creative video director with 30 years of storytelling experience. She has produced and directed many short portrait documentaries of Thailand’s social entrepreneurs with Yasuhiko Okuno for NHK World, Japan’s national broadcast.
Koh Okuno is a young storyteller born in Japan and raised in Chiang Mai. He studied philosophy and economics at the University of Amsterdam before working as a content producer in Brussels. He returned to Thailand to help produce “Unspoken Souls”.
The family began the project in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic when the tourism industry had collapsed and they learned about the hundreds of elephants around the country that were slowly starving to death. As animal lovers and as Japanese people who consider Thailand their second home, we asked ourselves, “what can we do to help?”
Entertainment Value & The Local Perspective
From the beginning, we wanted to approach our film differently from Western documentaries that have focused on providing educational facts and criticizing Thailand’s tourism industry. We knew that these productions were less accessible to the general public. Furthermore, with pre-determined perspectives, written scripts, and short 14-day shoots, they often oversimplified the complex reality of the elephants and their keepers in the tourism industry.
Our goal was the opposite. We sought to tell a story from the local perspective and make it entertaining and accessible for the general public. Therefore, living only one hour away from the protagonists and their elephants, we filmed their everyday lives with no plan and no script for three years, capturing the dramas and challenges that came their way as if it were a fiction film.
This approach helped us build a strong relationship with the elephants and the keepers, which allowed us to film them in a very intimate and emotional way.
Project Milestones Since 2021
We began the project in 2021 as a small passion project without any plan. But with every year, the film has continued to expand its global potential beyond our expectations.
In 2022, we were selected as one of the 20 film projects at Tokyo Docs, an international documentary pitch forum. After receiving 3 months of mentoring in documentary production, we were the only project to receive two awards: the Excellent Pitch Award and Sunny Side of the Doc Award.
In 2023, we were invited as one of the 41 global film projects to attend Sunny Side of the Doc in France, which is Europe’s biggest documentary market forum. At the event, we received strong interest from many European producers and distributors that confirmed the global potential of our story.
In 2024, our project caught the attention of two award-winning documentary filmmakers from Finland and France, both of whom have won awards at film festivals such as Cannes, Sundance, and Venice. After three years of filming, we began editing with their world-class mentorship.
In March 2025, our project was chosen as one of the few documentary projects that will be receiving support from the Thai Government's Soft Power Film Fund. With this subsidy, we will be working hard to finish the post-production of the full 85 minute feature-film.
International Film Screening Strategy
The final goal is to organize screenings for the Thai public. However, to strategically make this film of interest to the Thai people, we first need to maximize global media coverage of our film by premiering and screening it at well known film festivals in Europe, North America, and Asia. Our targets for the world premiere of the film are the following.
- Venice Film Festival (Italy), August 2025
- Locarno International Film Festival (Switzerland), August 2025
- Toronto International Film Festival (Canada), September 2025
- Busan International Film Festival (Korea), October 2025
- New York Documentary Film Festival (USA), November 2025
- International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (Netherlands), November 2025
Our goal is to screen the film in at least 6 to 9 different film festivals , targeting a total international audience of 5000 people.
Public Screenings in Thailand
After screening the film abroad and hopefully creating enough media attention, we want to screen a 60-min version of the film for the Thai public starting in late 2025 or early 2026, focusing on the Thai youth. Our goal is to organize screening events for 10 high schools and 5 universities with the target to reach a total of 5000 students. We will also aim to screen this version of the film at different art and culture festivals such as Chiang Mai Design Week, Chiang Mai Arts & Culture Festival, and Bangkok Design Week with the target to reach a total of 3000 people.
Online Platform - 20 min Version of the Film
Besides the full feature-film and the 60-min version, we will also be producing a 20-min version specifically for global outreach on online platforms. We aim to send this shorter version to well known online documentaries series such as the New York Times’ Op-Docs, The Guardian Documentaries, and Al Jazeera Documentaries, which can all be accessed for free by the public on Youtube. Short documentaries on these platforms reach a range of viewers from 10,000 to 4,000,000 people. Working with our producers, we aim to reach around 500,000 people on these online platforms.
The Support We Need
After four years of independently producing this documentary without compensation and covering outsourcing expenses that have totaled several million baht, we desperately need the help of the Thai people to safely bring this film to international film festivals and help complete the shorter versions of this film. For this, we need to raise a total of 2,967,300 baht.
Returns from the Film Release
Unspoken Souls began and remains an independent passion project that aims for social impact. From any excess income that the film makes, we aim for 1 million baht to go towards starting the “Unspoken Souls Foundation”, an organization that will aim to support animals, the environment, and marginalized communities in Thailand.
Approaches to addressing issues
1. The first objective is to screen the film at multiple international film festivals in Europe, North America, and Asia. Our final goal is to reach 5000 foreign audience members by screening the film at five different film festivals in five different countries.
2. After screening the film abroad, we will produce and screen a shorter version (60-min) of the film to the Thai public in late 2025 or early 2026, with a focus to reach the young generation. We will aim to organize screening events at 5 high schools and 5 universities with the target to reach a total of 3000 students. We will also aim to screen it at different art and culture festivals around the country.
3. In conjunction with the 60-min version, we will produce a 20-min version to submit to established Western and Asian media channels with the target to reach 500,000 people online
Operational Plan
Apr - May 2568
In these two months, we will be completing editing and the post-production of the 85 minute feature-film. Visual effects and color grading will be done at White Light Studio in Bangkok while sound mixing will be done in Chiang Mai. In May, we will conduct the final quality control of the final cut and complete post-production for the feature-length version.
May - Jul 2568
In April and July, we will be working with film sales agents from Europe to create our international screening strategy and submitting our feature-film to international film festivals in Europe, North America, and Asia.
Jun - Sep 2568
Once applications are submitted, we will be working on the post-production of the 20-min version for educational and marketing purposes as well as a 60-min version for educational institutions, art & culture events, and foreign broadcast channels.
Aug - Dec 2568
During this period, we hope to organize the world premiere of the feature-film at one of the film festivals that we applied to and continue screenings abroad to attract international attention. Furthermore, we will begin communicating with different educational institutions and art & culture events to create a plan for screenings of the 60-min versions of the film for the Thai public.
Dec 2025 - Jun 2026
During this period, we will organize the screenings for the Thai youth and Thai public at various educational institutions and art & culture events. We also will aim to have our 20-min version of the film published on one of the big media channels such as New York Times, The Guardian, and Al Jazeera to maximize online outreach of the film.
Budget Plan
| Item | Quantity | Amount (THB) |
|---|---|---|
| Film Festival Participations in North America & Europe Includes all working costs (transportation, accomodation, etc.) for 2 people | 7Festivals | 951,300.00 |
| Film Festival Participations in Asia Includes all working costs (transportation, accomodation, etc.) for 2 people | 2Festivals | 203,000.00 |
| Post-Production of 20-min educational version Includes editing, sound, color, and subtitle expenses. | 1Flat | 480,000.00 |
| Post-Production of 60-min online version Includes editing, sound, color, and subtitle expenses. | 1Flat | 1,138,000.00 |
| Educational Screening Tour in Bangkok Includes purchasing of a projector and accomodation & transportation for 3 people | 1Flat | 195,000.00 |
| Total Amount | 2,967,300.00 | |
| Taejai support fee (10%) | 296,730.00 | |
Project manager
K.M.Tomyam Co.,Ltd.
"From Japan to Thailand: In 2004 (2547BE ), I moved to Thailand with my family and established the media production company 'K.M.Tomyam Co., Ltd.' to begin activities that serve as a cultural bridge between Japan and Thailand. Since 2014 (2557 BE), We have been producing television programs in Thailand that introduce Japanese culture. During the COVID-19 pandemic, We learned about the plight of domesticated elephants in Thailand through our friend, animal rights activist Saengduean Lek Chailert. In 2021 (2564 BE), I began producing the documentary film 'Unspoken Souls,' with Saengduean Lek Chailert as the protagonist. Currently, We are in the midst of editing the film in Bangkok. Through this film, we hope to raise global awareness of the situation of domesticated elephants in Thailand."
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