Once a year, in the jungles of Nepal, elephants and man come together for one week to play the larger than life sport of Elephant Polo. While the game is highly competitive and faster than you might think, the real value is the presence of some of the largest and most gentle animals on earth. Unlike domesticated elephants in other parts of the world, these animals have been raised and trained only using positive reinforcement techniques and a close relationship with the same ‘mahout’ for many years. In 2012 Encompass Films documented this event and produced a short film.

Asa Firestone, the founder of Beyond Gear describes the origins of his new company, that sells climbing related apparel to support development projects centered around youth and adventure sports. Currently, Beyond Gear works with the Centro de Escalada Urbana in Rio, Brazil. The center uses the positive and instructive risks of rock climbing on the granite walls towering above the city’s favelas, to help the local youth gain perspective on what is possible both within and outside of their community.

Take A Seat: Egypt is the latest season in a series which revolves around adventurer Dominic Gill taking a tandem bicycle around the world and inviting random strangers to get on the back.  To date, Encompass has created and produced three separate Take A Seat projects. The first in conjunction with Scottish TV, where we produced a one-hour TV special released on ITV4 in the UK and then respectively distributed in Asia, Australia, and Europe.  Additionally, it received Special Jury Prize at Banff Film Festival and went on to tour over 400 cities around the world.  The second, was a journey across the United States produced in conjunction with Universal Sports, a division of NBC Universal.  It was released in 2010 as a 9 part mini-series. The most recent season in series Take A Seat Egypt was produced in-house and aired on Universal Sports, on Oct 1, 2012.

Amplify hired Encompass to record and produce a short video of Augustine Kofie painting a mural on their office building in Venice, CA.  This piece is an example of collaborative effort between the artist, who arranged to have the mural funded and painted, and Encompass Films which helped him document the process for use by himself and Amplify.

This profile was created for paralympic hopeful Aaron Baker.  Aaron Baker’s unique story of recovery and perseverance was originally designed to be a digital video for personal use by Baker but was so beloved in the adventure sports community that Banff Mountain Film Festival reached out and asked us to submit it for their 2012 festival.

N(ice) was commission by Canadian tourism board Travel Alberta for use as the first in a series of webisodes designed to attract Britons to holiday in Alberta.  N(ice) was directed by Dominic Gill who additionally features in the film as the primary ice climber.  The trek was hosted by Yamnuska and shot by camera extraordinaire Mike Malandra.