Director of "Elephant in the Living Room" discusses film with audience

Imagine a tiger or perhaps a Burmese python sitting with you in your house.

"Elephant in the Living Room" is a documentary that explores this subculture of exotic animal owners in America.

The movie highlights many of the issues that come from ownership of these types of animals and the fact that most states do not have permits or regulations in regards to possession of exotic animals. Exotic animal auctions are also an issue examined in the movie.

The main character is Tim Harrison, a public service agent in southern Ohio who specializes in catching exotic animals that break loose from their owners. Terry Brumfield serves as Harrison's antagonist. Brumfield owned two fully-grown lions as pets in the film.

Director Michael Webber shows other people explaining about their ownership and sale of exotic animals. Jaw-dropping images of the unconventional animals Harrison rescued from residential neighborhoods. The stories that he tells are gripping and shocking, to say the least.

Once Brumfield appears on screen, the movie becomes much more emotional. Brumfield explains how he uses the two lions as emotional crutches to deal with depression he incurred from a car accident that left him with back and neck injuries.

The pain seen in his eyes is intense and real whenever the thought of having to give up his lions arises.

Throughout the movie, Brumfield says he is not sure if it is right for him to keep the animals, but he will never give them up because they are like his own kids. Documentaries can sometimes become bland and uninteresting when the director crams all the information into an hour and a half, but this film does not do this. Instead,

"Elephant in the Living Room" portrays an incredible amount of heart and insight about a topic that is not prominent in many conversations. This is a fantastic first documentary from Webber and I am excited about his next project which might be about the criminal justice system in the US as it follows a murder suspect.

After the screening, Webber participated in a question-and-answer-answer session with the audience and host Kirk Baird over speakerphone.

KB: What was it that initially interested you in this topic? Where you surprised about the statistics, or horrified. What happened with it?

MW: I am not a member of the humane society or PETA or anything like. You know, I love animals just like anyone else, but really I am a filmmaker. What we look for is compelling characters with people who are in unique situations. You can't get any more unique than when they are raising lions in their house or someone like Tim Harrison who was pulling pythons out of people's homes and Bengal Tigers out of their basement.

KB: How long did you work on this film?

MW: I developed it for about a year. The actual shooting took place for about 18 months and then it took another six or so months for post-production. It was basically about two years or so.

KB: People are probably not aware of this, but Terry was killed in a railroad accident last year, correct? MW: That's right. KB: So, did he ever get the chance to see the final film?

MW: Yeah, he did…We talk about that on the DVD…Our first showing in Ohio opened up to 2,000 people in Dayton and he had never seen the film. I didn't let any of the subjects of the documentary see the film and he showed up and got to see the film in front of 2,000 people, and it was a good experience for him.

KB: Talk about the reaction to the film, both positive and negative. MW: We have a lot of positives. We won five best documentary awards. It ended up getting 20 film festival invites within the first few months. It ended up opening in April in about 60-plus cities and became one of the highest rated documentaries and films this year. So, critics and audiences have just overwhelmingly embraced the film, the story and everything. As a filmmaker it is more then I could have really hoped for.

Audience Member: Are we the only country crazy enough to do [unregulated exotic pet ownership]?

MW: I don't know the specifics of every country, but I am told that this is actually an issue in a lot of other countries as well, and I have heard of a lot of actually worse things in other countries.