Lisa Leeman: Bringing ‘One Lucky Elephant’ to Cleveland International Film Festival

Written by Alex Sukhoy for Film Slate Magazine.

Lisa Leeman, director of “One Lucky Elephant,” a visually captivating documentary recently featured at the Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF), feels honored to be part of such an important project. A decade in the making, “One Lucky Elephant,” per Leeman, focuses on the “father and daughter interspecies love story” between David Balding, a colorful and passionate circus producer and Flora, his beloved, and often stubborn, elephant.

After nearly twenty years of working together, David recognizes that Flora, rescued after witnessing the murder of her own mother, requires a new atmosphere to thrive. The story focuses on this part of the journey, when the elder generation struggles on how to step back and let the protégé shine. As the movie progresses into the second act, and unveils the depth of relationship between David and Flora, the audience gets hooked. And, given the emotional response at CIFF, the movie flawlessly demonstrates the strong connection humans have with the surrounding world.

Producer and writer “Cristina (Colissimo) drove the story,” said Leeman, a personal quest given her background: “Cristina grew up with elephants. Her father (Robert Yokel) was the director of the Miami Metro Zoo.”

The shooting of “One Lucky Elephant” took place in multiple regions, including St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Africa and other locations, adding a massive scope to an already larger than life animal that once had dominance and power. Now relying on the generosity and efforts of humans, Flora and her counterparts find themselves living between two worlds: human domesticity that is safe, but not necessarily satisfying, and the wild: natural, yet terrifyingly dangerous. Man is responsible for both spectrums and Flora, as well as David, remain somewhere in the middle, a traveling limbo that provides a benefit to one species, with tremendous cost to the other.

Leeman came to the project during its later stages; initially it was a favor to Miriam Cutler, the film’s composer and co-producer, who told Leeman that she had to direct “Elephant.” The documentary has since had a powerful effect on the accomplished filmmaker and USC professor. “I never really thought about making a film about animals. (But filming) Flora was magnificent.” Miriam also invited Jordana Glick-Franzheim (“Extraordinary Measures”) to be part of the expert production team, which included “Whiz Kids” executive producers Lizzie Friedman and Greg Little.

In additional to her connection with Flora, Leeman brings a soul-baring transparency to who David is, not just as Flora’s caretaker, but also as a husband struggling with his health and as a man tormented by uncertainty. His intentions, joys and pains feel incredibly naked to the observer and, in several key scenes, it’s as though one is sitting at the kitchen table with him. When asked how she accomplished such intimacy, Leeman wisely stated, “You have to earn the trust (of your subjects). It’s a two-way relationship. People open up you as much as you open up to them.”

Adds Tchavdar Georgiev, who, working with the award-winning and sought-after Kate Amend (“Long Way Home”) co-edited the film, “Every decade your goal is to produce one great movie. If the process is successful enough, it’s a risk; you don’t know how it will be received.” Continued Georgiev, “(Ultimately) the difference between a documentary and a narrative is a script that works.”

When asked about what attracted him to this project, Georgiev, whose masterful collaboration with Amanda Pope, “The Desert of Forbidden Art,” screened at last year’s CIFF, adds, “I was dying to work with Lisa Leeman. It’s been a great learning process for me. This is what we want as professionals – to work with people from whom we can learn and hone in on our craft.”

Incidentally, Leeman’s journey didn’t begin with films. “I was an aspiring hippie in the ’60s and I don’t know if I had seen documentaries. In college I started with photography but needed to bust out of the one-dimensional frame. I applied to film school at USC (and) fell in love with documentaries after I took a class with (Academy Award Winner) Mark Harris.”

About her sustaining commitment to documentaries, Leeman adds, “I have to carry out my own truth. Because truth is subjective.”

Her passion, talent and tenacity has paid off – not only has she written, edited, directed and produced numerous, well-recognized films during her twenty years in the business, including the 1990 Sundance award-winning “Metamorphisis: Man Into Woman,” but “One Lucky Elephant” has been hand-picked by Oprah for screening on the OWN Channel.

“Oprah hosted a party at (this year’s) Sundance.” But people didn’t expect her to show up. And, when she made her appearance, according to Leeman, the queen of television and media powerhouse told her surprised audience, “‘I want to do for documentaries what I was able to do for books.’”

Asked about what advice she’d give to up and coming filmmakers, Leeman, currently directing her next project, “Documentary of a Yogi,” generously offers the following wisdom: “Follow your heart, with the subject matter and the style. Films have to be made. Do something that you will have to live with for several years. So, pick your collaborators carefully.” Finally, “Get as close as you can to your craft.”

With “One Lucky Elephant,” Leeman has accomplished just that: a close, personal and contagiously resonating tale, one that made the attendees, both men and women, of the CIFF weep in complete surrender, proving that life and art, combined, form a far-reaching home where universal truths exist. And, where great filmmakers must venture, risking all, to find it.

Additional information about the film can be viewed at http://Users/SVoloshin/Dropbox/MAMP/creativecadence.oneluckyelephant.com/