Introducing
Chai Vasarhelyi
"I love elephants. I remember being fascinated as a kid by the images of elephants walking the Brooklyn Bridge. My grandmother used to say that elephants always remember, well I'm not sure about the science behind that, but I will say I'm so excited to see The Great Elephant Migration humanely return the elephants I love to the city I love. This collaboration with the indigenous artisans of The Coexistence Collective uses art to make viceral the majesty, scale, and elegance of these Indian Elephants. I'm not sure if elephants never forget, but I'm sure we will never forget this herd camping out in the city's Meatpacking District."
Chai Vasarhelyi is an Academy® Award-winning filmmaker. “Free Solo,” an intimate, unflinching portrait of rock climber Alex Honnold she made with her husband Jimmy Chin, won a BAFTA, seven Emmy awards, and the Academy® Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2019. Their first film together, “Meru,” won the Audience Award at Sundance in 2015 and was on the 2016 Oscar shortlist for Best Documentary Feature.
More recently, they directed and produced “Wild Life”, A sweeping portrait of conservationists Kris and Doug Tompkins chronicling their fight to preserve wild land in Chile and Argentina. Other projects include National Geographic’s DGA-nominated and Emmy winning documentary
“The Rescue,” chronicling the against-all-odds rescue of twelve boys and their coach from deep inside a flooded cave in Northern Thailand, “Return to Space,” about SpaceX and NASA’s first joint spaceflight, which hit the top 10 on Netflix’s most watched films list, and two series for National Geographic: “Edge of the Unknown With Jimmy Chin” and “Photographer.”
Their first scripted feature, “Nyad”, , began streaming on Netflix in the fall of 2023 and garnered Academy® Award, Golden Globe, and SAG nominations, for both stars Jodie Foster and Annette Bening.
