Arrives as panellist at première of Kathryn Bigelow’s film

The première of a virtual reality short by Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow was already a high-profile event at the Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday night. And then Hillary Clinton walked on-stage.

Ms. Clinton was an unannounced panellist, there to discuss the scourge of elephant poaching — the subject of Ms. Bigelow’s eight-minute film The Protectors: Walk in the Rangers’ Shoes, about park rangers trying to save elephants in Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

She spoke about her work to save elephants from poachers slaughtering them for their ivory tusks, both as Secretary of State in the Obama administration, and later with her family foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative.

Ms. Clinton told the audience that she first became focused on what she called “the horrific slaughter of elephants” when she was Secretary of State.

She noted that while China was the biggest market for illegal ivory, the United States was the second-biggest.

The appearance was one of a series Ms. Clinton has made lately in New York, including turning up at several Broadway shows, speaking at a recent women’s conference, and accepting an award this week from an LGBT community group.