Veteran Giant Ant animator and CD Conor Whelan steps into the writer/director role for this tense, atmospheric drama centered on the planet’s one remaining White Rhino and “the splintered morality of our efforts to save it.”

Conor Whelan: “The Northern White Rhino is a subspecies native to Central and East Africa. Their extremely valuable horns have made them targets for poaching, and as a result, their dwindling population is guarded 24/7 by armed guards. Only two Northern White Rhinos remain, a mother and daughter named Najin and Fatu.
 

“At the heart of the story of the Northern White Rhino lies an intriguing question: How do we protect what we have already doomed?”

 
“Our story takes place in a fictional near-future where the world’s sociopolitical structures have fallen apart, including the group tasked with protecting the White Rhinos. In their absence, a mysterious vigilante group has risen to continue this work, who are almost religiously devoted to protecting Fatu — the one remaining White Rhino.

“At the heart of the story of the Northern White Rhino lies an intriguing question: How do we protect what we have already doomed? Daily we find ourselves torn between contradictory impulses: to make meaningful global change or to live a meaningful small life; to seize the land we feel entitled to or to humble ourselves before its nature; to hold someone accountable for Earth’s demise or to know our own complicity.

“Our dilemma is too vast to comprehend, but on the Ugandan plains these same issues play out on a smaller scale. There are the poachers who choose to serve their own needs, the guards who seek to serve a higher cause, and at the center of it all: The Last White Rhino.”
 
 

 
Production: Giant Ant
Writer/Director: Conor Whelan
Producer: Cory Philpott
Art Director: Eric Pautz
Designer: Eric Pautz, Sophia Ouellette, Rafael Mayani
Cel Animation Director: Sitji Chou
Animator: Sitji Chou, Louis Roba, Fabio Valesini, Esther Cheung, Alex Murphy, Diego Maclean, Duncan Patterson, Conor Whelan, Joan Chung,
Compositor: Conor Whelan, Alex Murphy, Duncan Patterson, Diego Maclean

Music/Sound Design: Ochre Swim

Special Thanks: Jay Grandin, Teresa Toews
Production support: BUCK