Hillary Clinton makes surprise appearance at Tribeca talk
While Saturday saw thousands of people March for Science, Hillary Clinton spent her Earth Day (or Earth Night) stopping by a Tribeca Film Festival panel discussion of Kathryn Bigelow’s new virtual reality short, The Protectors: Walk in the Rangers Shoes, to speak out against elephant poaching.
“Here it is Earth Day and we are marching on behalf of science,” she said as part of her opening remarks, which you can see in the video above. “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.”
She then focused on the subject matter of Bigelow and co-director Imraan Ismail’s film, which allows VR users to spend a day in the life of a Garamba National Park ranger in the Democratic Republic of Congo as they risk their lives to protect elephants from the threat of poachers who will kill them for their ivory tusks - while also facing the possibility of death at the hands of a frightened elephant.
“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,” said Clinton, who worked to help cease global wildlife trafficking during her tenure as Secretary of State. “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.”
The Protectors is a National Geographic Documentary Films’ VR short. It was produced to help African Parks, a conservation nonprofit, in their fight to end the Ivory War.
National Geographic will release the film exclusively on Within on May 1 and on YouTube and Facebook 360 starting May 8.
