The Elephant Whisperers

Kartiki Gonsalves’ documentary debut, “The Elephant Whisperers,” released on Netflix, shines a spotlight on the ways in which climate change and human encroachment are rapidly destroying the habitats of Asian elephants. The film’s dire warning is subtly woven into a heartfelt narrative about forging family in unlikely places with elephant caretakers Bomman and Bellie at its core. The duo raise an orphaned elephant named Raghu, whom they’ve cared for since infancy, as well as another calf named Ammu. “[Bomman and Bellie] are still understanding the process of what the Oscars exactly are, but they’re just overwhelmed with messages and calls and really happy to share their lives with such a large audience,” Helmer Kartiki Gonsalves told Variety. “I don’t think they’ve ever had this kind of recognition before.”

Haulout

For their documentary debut, Maxim Arbugaev and Evgenia Arbugaeva spent 3½ months in close quarters with Russian scientist Maxim Chakilev, who annually travels to Chukotka to observe one of nature’s wildest phenomena: the gathering of thousands of walruses on the coast. But as the brother-sister duo came to discover, the horde of animals is far from cuddly. Frightened by global warming-induced displacement and overcrowding, the yearly spectacle results in record-high deaths and casualties among the species as mass panic ensues. “When I saw this, I was like, ‘Oh my god.’ In such a short time of being there — just for three months — you see this devastating effect of climate change, and it’s so clear,” Arbugaeva says. “It’s a fact. There’s no denying it. And I found that this story can actually show what is happening in the region clearly without narration.”

How Do You Measure a Year?

When Jay Rosenblatt first began the yearly ritual of recording his daughter’s responses to a selection of pre-written questions on her birthday, he wasn’t sure if the footage would amount to anything more than the average home video. But when his 2021 documentary short, “When We Were Bullies” received a nomination at last year’s Academy Awards, Rosenblatt approached the 2023 awards circuit with newfound confidence. “This is very personal — it runs the gamut of emotions,” Rosenblatt says of his latest short, which depicts the growing pains of getting older as his daughter, Ella, ages from 2 to 18. “One of the great things that I didn’t anticipate is that a lot of people have written they’ve watched it with their kids, or they watched it as a family.” 

The Martha Mitchell Effect

In documenting the fall from grace of Southern whistleblower Martha Mitchell, ex-wife of former U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell, co-directors Anne Alvergue and Debra McClutchy assembled the penultimate case study in gaslighting: “Perhaps, if you can watch it and recognize the mechanisms of gaslighting, then you can sort of be empowered to fight against it. That’s sort of our larger hope and impact for younger girls and women,” Alvergue says. Using archival footage and audio interviews with primary sources from the early ’70s, the duo’s first-time collaboration unveils the hidden truth of Martha’s role in the Watergate scandal — from prompting President Richard Nixon’s resignation to being held a political prisoner — and her inevitable downfall at the hands of the administration. “If we can exhume these female stories from the past, then it gives more credence and validity to women’s stories in the present day, too,” McClutchy says.

Stranger at the Gate

Inspired by his own experiences with anti-Semitism while growing up in New York, Joshua Seftel was compelled to take action when he noticed a post-9/11 increase in discrimination against American Muslims — a community he has kept at the heart of his filmmaking since. “Stranger at the Gate” marks the 25th short Seftel has released on the subject, and the director says he’s turning the 30-minute film into a scripted, narrative feature. The short demonstrates the power of compassion through the remarkable transformation of former Marine Mac McKinney, who plots to detonate an Islamic center after returning to civilian life. But shown kindness by the Muslims who occupy the space, McKinney converts to Islam and is filled with a renewed sense of purpose. “This guy, he still had a beating heart in his chest. He was human,” Seftel says. “He may have been monstrous in some ways, but he was a human being, too, and there was something there — there was that beating heart inside there — that had the potential to change.” 

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