‘One Lucky Elephant’ on OWN, 1 December.

“She’s territorial. She doesn’t want people in her territory. She’s a teenager too, she likes to go in her room and close the door.” David Balding is talking about an African elephant. Her name is Flora, and they’ve been together for 16 years. “We just spent so much time together that we’re very close,” Balding says, as Flora appears behind him, playing with his hair and jacket. This closeness proves a blessing and a curse as Balding recounts their lives together in One Lucky Elephant, premiering on OWN Documentary Club on 1 December. As much as Balding and Flora appear to share an understanding, they also face a fundamental difference. She’s a wild animal, brought into his domestic (circus) world as a baby. As she grows older, the film recounts, Balding realizes she can’t be happy in this world, and he devotes himself to finding an alternative. As he comes to terms with his own needs and blind spots, Lisa Leeman’s film follows his efforts to understand Flora’s needs as well. elephant in his life. And, as Flora’s story illustrates the problems of buying and selling and using wild animals in circuses and zoos, it also never keeps focused on an essential insight. Elephants, lucky or not, have minds.

See PopMatters‘ review.