Rhino Dollars: an accurate view on the global trafficking of rhino horn
ARTE, the non-commercial European culture channel, has made available online Rhino Dollars, a 2-year investigative documentary on the global trafficking of rhino horn and which features our efforts in Southeast Asia to disrupt and help dismantle the criminal networks benefiting from this illegal trade.
Rhino Dollars has been a long yet rewarding project made possible by the director, Olivia Mokiejewski, TV Press Productions and ARTE. We are extremely thankful for the opportunity to be part of this film and we hope that it will raise awareness to help end this crime.
ARTE premiered the film on 16 October 2018. It will be broadcasted in France and Germany. We will let you know as other broadcasting platforms make it available in other countries.
Filmed largely in South Africa and Asia, Rhino Dollars portrays the trafficking of rhino horn and highlights the transnationality of this crime. The film sets out in March 2017, when Vince, a Southern white rhinoceros, was killed by poachers at the Thoiry Zoo, near Paris (France), which brought the daily threat to the species in their natural habitats to the very heart of Europe. The producers took nearly two years to follow the trail of this global crime from source to destination and the profits that it yields for the traffickers and dealers. The film exposes that the trafficking of rhino horn is not only an outrageous crime against a threatened species (all subspecies of rhinoceros rank from vulnerable to critically endangered) but also truly qualifies as a form of transnational organised crime that generates high revenues for those driving it.
The documentary offers a comprehensive and accurate view of the transnationality of this crime and its challenges, highlighting the tenacious work of law enforcement units and prosecutors in different countries to curb this crime as well as the conservation efforts to preserve the species.
We are extremely grateful to the director, Olivia Mokiejewski, for her determination to expose the global criminality behind the trafficking of rhino horn and for choosing the WJC for her project, as well as for the outstanding work, professionalism and respect that she and her crew have shown for the work of our teams during the production and post production of the film.
We are very thankful to TV Presse Productions and to ARTE for making this documentary possible and for their support towards the WJC throughout this long production project.
We really hope you enjoy it and please feel free to share it with your networks!
