April 24 (UPI) — Former Secretary of State and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton attended this weekend’s world premiere of “The Protectors: Walk in the Ranger’s Shoes” at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.
The National Geographic documentary is the first virtual-reality short from Kathryn Bigelow and Imraan Ismail. Shot in the Congo, the film is intended to show viewers the “dangerous reality of those who risk their lives to protect elephants from poachers slaughtering the animals for their ivory tusks,” a press release said.
“Here it is Earth Day and we are marching on behalf of science. Part of science is understanding the intricate relationships we share with all those who are on this planet and in particular large mammals like elephants,” Clinton said in a panel discussion about the film.
“I’m very proud that under President Obama, the United States passed a near federal ban on the transportation and interstate trafficking of ivory in our own country,” she added, noting the Obama administration “had three overriding goals — stop the killing, stop the trafficking, and stop the demand… and part of that is protecting these rangers.”
Bigelow, the film’s co-director, said, “I realized that there was an intersection between poaching and terrorism, which led me to this project.”
She won an Oscar for helming the war drama “The Hurt Locker.”
