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WATCH THE TRAILER
Poaching Ivory
there are only 400K living African elephants left. Poaching and the illegal ivory trade are responsible for the decrease in the elephant population
HUMAN-ELEPHANT CONFLICT IS ALSO RESPONSIBLE FOR DRIVING ELEPHANTS TOWARD EXTINCTION.
NUMBERING THREE TO FIVE MILLION IN THE LAST CENTURY, HUNTING REDUCED THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT POPULATIONS TO THEIR CURRENT LEVELS. IN THE 1980S, PEOPLE KILLED ABOUT 100,000 ELEPHANTS EACH YEAR, AND WE LOST UP TO 80% OF HERDS IN SOME REGIONS.
THE ELEPHANT'S TRUNK (WHICH IS BASICALLY THEIR NOSE) ALSO OPERATES AS AN ARM; THEY USE IT TO POUR WATER INTO THEIR MOUTHS, TO GRAB OBJECTS OR GROOM THEMSELVES. WHEN ELEPHANTS SWIM IN DEEP WATERS, THEY USE THEIR TRUNKS AS SNORKELS.
TRUNK
ELEPHANTS POSSESS THE LARGEST BRAINS OF ALL LAND ANIMALS, WEIGHING UP TO 6 KILOGRAMS. THEIR BRAIN SIZE IS NOT JUST FOR SHOW; ELEPHANTS ARE HIGHLY INTELLIGENT. MUCH OF AN ELEPHANT'S BEHAVIOR IS LEARNED RATHER THAN INSTINCTIVE.
THEY ARE HIGHLY INTELLIGENT WITH SUPERIOR LEARNING ABILITIES AND THEY HAVE AN EXCELLENT MEMORY- THEY CAN REMEMBER WATERING HOLES CREATED YEARS AGO, RECOGNIZE HUMANS THEY HAVE SEEN, AND WILL KNOW WHEN IS THE TIME FOR FRUIT HARVESTS.
BRAIN
Loxodonta
Elephant
Born from lived experience and shaped through collaboration with brain injury survivors, cultural advocates, and clinicians, Fall of the Phoenix explores how invisible injuries reshape identity and what becomes possible when awareness, care, and imagination meet.
Brain injury is one of the most widespread and least understood public health crises of our time. Its impact reaches far beyond hospitals and diagnoses, shaping mental health, identity, relationships, incarceration, homelessness, and access to care. For millions of people, the injury is invisible, misdiagnosed, or never named at all.
Fall of the Phoenix does not treat brain injury as a medical condition alone, but as a human experience—one that ripples through families, communities, and systems. It asks what happens when injury goes unseen, when care is inaccessible, and when people are left to carry the weight of healing on their own.
Through a blend of real-life storytelling, expert insight, and mythic visual language, the film makes the invisible felt. Magical realism becomes a tool for understanding what words and statistics often fail to capture: the inner worlds of survivors, caregivers, and communities navigating rupture and repair.
This film matters because it creates space for:
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Greater empathy for people living with invisible injuries
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New ways of understanding brain injury beyond stigma and shame
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Connection between science, culture, and lived experience
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A broader public conversation about care, belonging, and healing
By translating complex neurological and psychological realities into story and image, Fall of the Phoenix reframes brain injury as a shared human issue—and invites us to imagine what healing could look like if awareness, compassion, and access were truly within reach.
WHY THIS FILM MATTERS
Meet The Director, Lauren Lindberg
Lauren Lindberg is a writer, director and producer whose work bridges cinematic storytelling, lived experience, and systems-level impact initiatives. Her approach is informed by personal experience with brain injury, over 10 years of professional documentary career, and ongoing collaboration with brain injury survivors, advocates and clinicians working at the intersection of neuroscience, trauma, and justice.
Fall of the Phoenix Film
Tel. 925-200-8183
lindbergproduction@gmail.com
Your contribution will help us complete our final sprint of production by the end of 2026.