‘Trade Secret’ Director Abraham Jofee Says Time Allowed Him To Expose Polar Bear Trade – Contenders Documentary

Abraham Joffe has documented wildlife in the ocean and the Arctic in films including Ghosts of the Arctic, Our Oceans and Big Cat Tales. While on an Arctic trip in 2013, he learned about the polar bear trade and set out to investigate it. The result is Trade Secret, and Joffe told Deadline’s Matt Carey at Contenders Documentary event that if this was a surprise to him, he knew viewers not immersed in conservation would be surprised and shocked.

“If you have enough money, you can buy a polar bear skin,” Joffe said. “You can actually go shoot one yourself.”

The film shows Canada to be one of the worst offenders in not protecting polar bears, whose population is down to between 22,000 and 31,000.

“About two-thirds of the polar bears in the world live in Canada, and it’s a little bit unfortunate, I think, for the species that so much of the population does reside in Canada,” Joffe said. “Canada continues to be the only country in the world that exports its polar bear population into the trade market. And it is a shocking thing for most people to realize.”

Trade Secret exposes many other shocking details in other countries, which Joffe did not want to reveal to viewers before they see the film. He credits the freedom to investigate for years, including going undercover with hidden cameras, with leading to the revelations in the film.

“It took many years and a lot of brave people to do a lot of undercover work,” Joffe said. “I could never have known the story we ultimately told and the revelations that we uncovered over the many years and the people that we followed for many years.”

Joffe and his team also spent much of that time verifying their information.

“We knew that it was incredibly important for us to be as, as you say, forensic as possible to do our due diligence,” Joffe said. “We really have, over a long period of time, made sure the film presents everything as absolutely as factually as possible because we’re dealing with really important subject matter here and some pretty shocking revelations. We felt, I felt as a filmmaker, that we had to follow the story wherever it went.”

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As a documentarian, Joffe drew inspiration on another film that followed its subjects into an uncertain future: 1993’s Hoop Dreams followed two high school basketball stars for six years.

“I had always sought to find a story that was as important enough that commanded the dedication of time,” Joffe said. “I remember the first film I ever saw was Hoop Dreams that gave me that feeling of like, ‘Wow,’ to follow a story for so many years, not knowing how it would play out. I’d always sought to find such a story, and this for me certainly was that.”

Polar bears could join the millions of species endangered. Joffe cited the statistic that 70% of the world’s wildlife has been lost since 1950. However, more than sheer numbers, Joffe emphasized the dangers that the practice of trophy hunting poses to evolution.

“Trade and trophy hunting both value the largest, fittest specimens,” Joffe said. “A lot of these vulnerable species are facing huge challenges, often through climate and loss of habitat. The ones that have come down through countless generations as being the warrior, largest, fittest animals, they are the ones most often best equipped to survive a changing world. And when you start selecting those out, it can have devastating effects.”

Check back Tuesday for the panel video.