{"id":18508,"date":"2022-08-24T01:54:28","date_gmt":"2022-08-24T01:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=18508"},"modified":"2022-08-25T19:53:34","modified_gmt":"2022-08-25T19:53:34","slug":"connecting-the-dots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/24\/connecting-the-dots\/","title":{"rendered":"Connecting The Dots"},"content":{"rendered":"

How the conflict between Asian elephants, Hindus in India, <\/i><\/span>and Nepalese farmers speaks volumes about Valley life and beyond<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Eric Valentine<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
A longtime resident of the Valley, Kim Frank is a Fellow of The Explorers Club and is now trying to tell the nuanced story of inter- and intra-species conflicts in the Himalayas. Photo credit: Dave Concannon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Every good movie has a plotline\u2014that clear narrative wherein strong protagonists and antagonists have goals with obstacles to overcome; the stakes are high. Great movies\u2014we like to call those \u2018films\u2019\u2014also have something called subtext. Part metaphor, part simile, part irony, this nuanced but unmistakable storytelling element is the \u2018But what\u2019s it really<\/i> about?\u2019 factor involved in any interpersonal communication. It\u2019s objectively critical, subjectively realized, and the difference between functional infotainment and crucial art.<\/p>\n

So when you ask Kim Frank what her documentary on Himalayan elephants is about, the longtime Valley resident and writer can\u2014with all seriousness\u2014answer like this:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, it\u2019s not really about elephants \u2026,\u201d Frank said.<\/p>\n

Cut to: Frank\u2019s husband and an executive producer for the film, Dave Concannon, who just like his wife, is a Fellow with The Explorers Club. His years of planning and performing high-mountain climbs and deep-sea dives give him the logistical point of view about the film.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the past few years, Kim has been involved in a project to document the conflict between humans and elephants in remote northeast India, in the foothills of the Himalayas, hard up against the borders with Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet. She has published four articles internationally (see https:\/\/kimfrankwriter.com\/<\/a>), written a book titled Where the Forest Roars<\/i> during the COVID lockdown, and she just returned to India to begin filming a documentary (also titled Where the Forest Roars<\/i>) under the tutelage of Anthony Geffen, an occasional (Wood River Valley) resident who is David Attenborough\u2019s producer,\u201d Concannon said. He added, \u201cThis is just her recent work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connecting Dots<\/b><\/p>\n

So, what\u2019s it really about?<\/p>\n

The gestalt theory of perception attempts to explain how the human brain uses a key set of visual cues to interpret information and better understand relationships. It\u2019s where the saying \u201cthe whole is greater than the sum of its parts\u201d comes from. And the concept does nothing short of explain how humans place meaning on the things they see.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m keenly interested in the space between humans and the wildlife we coexist with,\u201d observed Frank who, in addition to her history degree, has earned two master\u2019s degrees, one in social work and one in fine arts. \u201cWe\u2019re so disconnected from our fragility.\u201d<\/p>\n

You\u2019d think Frank was talking about her documentary and how the elephants of the Himalayas are, essentially, being pushed out of their indigenous habitat by Indian development and into Nepalese farmland where walls have been built to keep them from devouring crops and trampling homes and children on their exploration for food. That\u2019s just the interspecies complications. Also at play is the intra<\/i>species psychodrama between Indian Hindus who revere the elephant as sacred and the Nepalese people who don\u2019t. In other words, one group of humans would kill an elephant as a last resort, and the other group would die for one. Meanwhile, all species involved have to eat.<\/p>\n

How does all this connect with gestalt theory? Through Frank. Frank doesn\u2019t necessarily see the world or its crises through an environmentalist lens. It\u2019s not that she doesn\u2019t get it. If you want her to, she can go on a tangent about elephant poop and its importance to the ecology of the forest which happens to produce the oxygen we breathe. Instead, Frank sees the world through that of her fields of study: history, social work, and art\u2014a sort of perfect fit of studies to start a conversation that\u2019s not about science-denial or science-only. Frank\u2019s conversation is one of coexistence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are literally at a point where elephants and humans are killing each other over water,\u201d Frank remarked of the Himalayan conflict.<\/p>\n

Seeing the connection between what\u2019s happening alongside the Himalayas to what\u2019s happening alongside the Sawtooths, Frank observed, \u201cHere, maybe your favorite coffee shop closed down because they can\u2019t find the labor. That seems like a First World problem, but it belies an actual infrastructure problem that has, at its roots, coexistence. Our inability as a community right now to have actual viable economic diversity and our inability to have viable places to live in this community; it is affecting our survival.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mile Markers<\/b><\/p>\n

The mother of two adopted children from China, the wife of an exploration attorney and consultant who recovers shipwrecks and launches private space exploration projects, and the woman who was named a National Head Start fellow doesn\u2019t shy away from uncharted territory. But creating, implementing and funding a feature film is entirely new ground for her.<\/p>\n

By its nature, independent film production is a have-a-vision-first, get-a-gameplan-later endeavor. There\u2019s no franchise recipe or sequel leveraging or even\u2014in the case of documentaries\u2014a final script to follow. Sometimes it feels like karma, not capital, drives the project\u2019s destiny. Already Frank\u2019s documentary has expanded past the one human-elephant confrontation that was the impetus for her wanting to make a film. But in documentary making there are things one could call mile markers\u2014happy accidents, good advice, and moments of clarity that serve as signs you are on track, going the right way. And those are looking quite good right now.<\/p>\n

Frank talked with us from San Francisco where she was meeting with a literary agent keen on representing her book. A producer for broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and author Sir David Attenborough is advising the production. The Explorers Club granted Frank the organizational flag to take on her travels, something only a small percentage of members (and an even smaller percentage of women members) get the privilege of carrying into the field. And Rolex, a brand whose history is embedded in mountaineering and exploration, outfitted her with an explorer\u2019s watch to use during her travels.<\/p>\n

All this makes it very realistic for an August 2023 goal date for having the documentary submission-ready for festivals. And if it\u2019s ready by August 12, World Elephant Day, that would make it karmic, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How the conflict between Asian elephants, Hindus in India, and Nepalese farmers speaks volumes about Valley life and beyond By Eric Valentine Every good movie has a plotline\u2014that clear narrative wherein strong protagonists and antagonists have goals with obstacles to overcome; the stakes are high. Great movies\u2014we like to call those \u2018films\u2019\u2014also have something called […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,18],"tags":[1261,1259,1260],"class_list":{"0":"post-18508","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-environment-2","9":"category-news","10":"tag-dave-concannon","11":"tag-elephants","12":"tag-kim-frank"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18508"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18563,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18508\/revisions\/18563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}