Filmmakers Daniel Hernandez Alonzo and Refael Kubersky take to Mauritius to investigate the global non-human primate trade. Following government reports that a US shortage of monkeys used for research will hamper biomedical development, the US has turned to foreign countries to fill in its domestic needs. Mauritius has become the number one supplier of non-human primates to the US, but great debate has erupted on the island regarding the trade, pitting politicians, conservationists, and neighbors against each other. With dwindling sources of research monkeys, American biomedical researchers anxiously await how this conflict plays out on the small island-nation.
Alonzo and Kubersky get an inside look into Bioculture, one of the nation’s largest exporters, detailing how the company traps and breeds these monkeys that eventually land in American labs. They also speak with Mauritian residents, religious leaders, conservationists, and biomedical researchers to give audiences a rare look into this little known economy.
