Watch: 'Last Days', Kathryn Bigelow's Short Film About The Illegal Ivory Trade

Two years after Zero Dark Thirty opened, Kathryn Bigelow is back with her latest movie. But you won't find this one in theaters — instead, you can watch the whole thing right here.

Bigelow's latest project is Last Days, a short film about the illegal ivory trade. Not only is the trade killing off endangered elephant populations, it's hurting humans, too, because the proceeds are going toward terrorist movements. Watch the Kathryn Bigelow short film Last Days after the jump.

The Kathryn Bigelow short film Last Days premiered on Time.com.

According to the short film an elephant disappears every 15 minutes. So if you watch this film about five times, another elephant will have died. At that rate, the entire elephant population could be gone in just 11 years.

Bigelow explained to Time how this project came to be. "Last year I was made aware of the very real connection between elephant poaching and terrorism," she said. "For me it represented the diabolical intersection of two problems that are of great concern — species extinction and global terrorism. Both involve the loss of innocent life, and both require urgent action."

She and the filmmakers chose to make Last Days a short film rather than a full-fledged feature because of the urgency of the message. They wanted to get the word out as quickly as possible, rather than letting more elephant deaths pile up over the years it would have taken to make a two-hour movie.

The subject matter seems like a good fit for Bigelow, who's lately found great success chronicling the American War on Terror. The war on elephants is another corner of that struggle, as well as a tragedy in its own right.

As disturbing and depressing as Last Days is, it shouldn't leave you feeling helpless. The film's official website offers a comprehensive selection of ways you can contribute to the cause.