Pictures can sometimes say more than a thousand words. Listed below are some examples of documentaries and movies that address the challenges and developments in animal welfare against the backdrop of our consumption.
A.L.F. - Animal Liberation Front
“A drama teacher, his pupil, an artistic couple, a boxer, a vet. These seemingly ordinary people have one thing extraordinary in common. Together they share one goal: to eradicate animal abuse. To that end they all subscribe to the credo of The Animal Liberation Front, and they are prepared to do whatever they must to stop the continuing horror of animal abuse and torture.”
Bugs
“Will eating insects save our earth? Insects as food is a hot topic. Particularly over the last few years, since the UN recommended edible insects as a resource to combat world hunger, they have been heralded for their taste by cooks and gastronomes, for their low ecological impact by environmentalists, and for their nutritional content by public health scientists. It would seem that insects are the new superfood that will fix all our problems of global food security.”
Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret
“Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret is a groundbreaking feature-length environmental documentary following intrepid filmmaker Kip Andersen as he uncovers the most destructive industry facing the planet today – and investigates why the world’s leading environmental organizations are too afraid to talk about it.
Animal agriculture is the leading cause of deforestation, water consumption and pollution is responsible for more greenhouse gases than the transportation industry, and is a primary driver of rainforest destruction, species extinction, habitat loss, topsoil erosion, ocean “dead zones,” and virtually every other environmental ill. Yet it goes on, almost entirely unchallenged.”
Earthlings
“Earthlings is a 2005 American documentary film about humankind's total dependence on animals for economic purposes. Presented in five chapters (pets, food, clothing, entertainment and scientific research) the film is narrated by Joaquin Phoenix, featuring music by Moby, and was written, produced and directed by Shaun Monson.”
The End of Meat
“The End of Meat is a groundbreaking documentary film envisioning a future where meat consumption belongs to the past. Although evidence of meat consumption's negative impact on the planet and on human health continue stacking up as animal welfare is on the decline, humanity's love affair with hamburgers, steaks, nuggets and chops just doesn’t end.”
Facing Animals
“Facing Animals is a documentary about the complex and often bizarre relationship between man and animal. Why do we look away from millions of animals in industrial farms while pampering and humanizing others?”
Farmageddon
“Farmageddon takes an alarming look into excessive government oversight of American food producers. Director Kristin Canty reveals stories of government harassment and outsized force against small, independent farms that were coerced into stopping production. Canty, a mother of four, tells the story of her struggle to find the foods of her choice, such as raw milk, from the producers she wanted. In an interview about her film, Canty says, ‘I hope that we can come to realize that America’s farms, farmers, and homesteaders deserve a place here, and should not be under attack by our own government.’”
Food Choices
“Join award-winning filmmaker Michal Siewierski on his three-year journey to expose the truth about our food choices. This ground-breaking documentary explores the impact that Food Choices have on people’s health, the health of our planet and the lives of other living species. And also discusses several misconceptions about food and diet, offering a unique new perspective on these issues. Featuring interviews with 28 world-renowned experts, (...). This film will certainly change the way you look at the food on your plate.”
Food Inc.
“In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner details how the growth of industrial farming and the political power of major food companies have put human health, the independent farmer, farm workers, and our environment at risk. Despite its dire overview of the current food system, Food, Inc. inspires viewers to do their part in changing the food system. “You have to understand that we farmers…we’re gonna deliver to the marketplace what the marketplace demands…People have got to start demanding good, wholesome food of us, and we’ll deliver; I promise you,” says Troy Roush, an Indianan farmer featured in the film.”
Forks Over Knives
“Two out of every three of us are overweight. Cases of diabetes are exploding, especially amongst our younger population. About half of us are taking at least one prescription drug. Major medical operations have become routine, helping drive healthcare costs to astronomically. Heart disease, cancer and stroke are the country’s three leading causes of death, even though billions are spent each year to “battle” these conditions. Millions suffer from a host of other degenerative diseases.”
Glass Walls
“Music legend and activist Paul McCartney delivers a powerful narration of this must-see video. Watch now to discover why everyone would be vegetarian if slaughterhouses had glass walls.”
The GhostS in Our Machine
“The Ghosts in our Machine illuminates the lives of individual animals living within and rescued from the machine of our modern world. Through the heart and photographic lens of animal rights photojournalist Jo-Anne McArthur, audiences become intimately familiar with a cast of non-human animals. From undercover investigations to joyful rescue missions, in North America and in Europe, each photograph and story is a window into global animal industries: Food, Fashion, Entertainment and Research. The Ghosts in our Machine charts McArthur’s efforts to bring wider attention to a topic that most of humankind strives hard to avoid.”
H.O.P.E. - What You Eat Matters
“H.O.P.E: What You Eat Matters seeks to find solutions to the issues faced by Western society, such as obesity, cardio-vascular diseases, diabetes and cancer, by exploring dietary habits. With meat consumption having risen significantly over the past 50 years, author and filmmaker Nina Messinger travels through to several countries to better understand the consequences of a meat-based diet. She meets with experts in nutrition, medicine, science, and agriculture, as well as farmers and people who have recovered from severe illnesses through diet change.”
The Last Pig
“Through this personal journey, The last pig raises crucial questions about equality, the value of compassion and the sanctity of life. Comis’ soul-bearing narrative carries us through his final year of farming pigs, the struggle to reinvent his life, and the ghosts that will haunt him forever.
It is our hope that The last pig will help propel a shift in our society’s relationship to non-human beings and our capacity for compassion.”
Live and let Live
“Live and Let Live is a feature documentary examining our relationship with animals, the history of veganism and the ethical, environmental and health reasons that move people to go vegan.
Food scandals, climate change, lifestyle diseases and ethical concerns move more and more people to reconsider eating animals and animal products. From butcher to vegan chef, from factory farmer to farm sanctuary owner – Live and Let Live tells the stories of six individuals who decided to stop consuming animal products for different reasons and shows the impact the decision has had on their lives.”
Meat The Truth
“The documentary Meat the Truth is the first major project undertaken by the Nicolaas G. Pierson Foundation. Meat the Truth is a high-profile documentary, presented by Marianne Thieme (leader of the Party for the Animals), which forms an addendum to earlier films that have been made about climate change. Although such films have convincingly succeeded in drawing public attention to the issue of global warming, they have repeatedly ignored one of the most important causes of climate change, namely: intensive livestock production. Meat the Truth has drawn attention to this by demonstrating that livestock farming generates more greenhouse gas emissions worldwide than all cars, lorries, trains, boats and planes added together.”
Meat the Future
“Reinventing meat is a tipping point that could change the world. Meat the Future ushers the viewer into a world vexed by the impacts of modern day industrial animal agriculture and zeros in on a revolutionary story. Revealing challenges and breakthroughs and posing a myriad of questions about the future, this 90-minute character-driven documentary explores the advent of real meat without the need to raise and slaughter animals.
If scientists can grow human tissue from stem cells for use in medical procedures, then why not a similar process to “brew” real pork, beef, and poultry? Meat the Future witnesses the controversial, potentially game-changing birth of a new food industry referred to as “clean” “cell-based” “cell-cultured” and “cultured” meat – a term hotly debated as the industry approaches commercialization.”
More Than Honey
“Over the past 15 years, numerous colonies of bees have been decimated throughout the world, but the causes of this disaster remain unknown. Depending on the world region, 50% to 90% of all local bees have disappeared, and this epidemic is still spreading from beehive to beehive – all over the planet. Everywhere, the same scenario is repeated: billions of bees leave their hives, never to return. No bodies are found in the immediate surroundings, and no visible predators can be located.”
Speciesism: The Movie
“Modern farms are struggling to keep a secret. Most of the animals used for food in the United States are raised in giant, bizarre “factory farms,” hidden deep in remote areas of the countryside. Speciesism: The Movie director Mark Devries set out to investigate. The documentary takes viewers on a sometimes funny, sometimes frightening adventure, crawling through the bushes that hide these factories, flying in airplanes above their toxic “manure lagoons,” and coming face-to-face with their owners.”
Our Daily Bread
“Welcome to the world of industrial food production and high-tech farming! To the rhythm of conveyor belts and immense machines, the film looks without commenting into the places where food is produced in Europe: monumental spaces, surreal landscapes and bizarre sounds - a cool, industrial environment which leaves little space for individualism. People, animals, crops and machines play a supporting role in the logistics of this system which provides our society’s standard of living.”
Pig Business
“Pig Business investigates the rise of factory pig farming. This farming system threatens human health through dangerous overuse of antibiotics, wrecks rural economies and communities, pollutes the environment and abuses animals. The resulting profits line the pockets of just a handful of massive corporations and their powerful lobbyists, putting local farmers out of business.”
Unity
“Narrated by 100 celebrity voices, Unity is the new film by writer/director Shaun Monson that focuses on why humanity can't get along with each other, the animals, or their environment.”
Vegucated
“Part sociological experiment and part adventure comedy, Vegucated follows three meat- and cheese-loving New Yorkers who agree to adopt a vegan diet for six weeks. Lured by tales of weight lost and health regained, they begin to uncover the hidden sides of animal agriculture that make them wonder whether solutions offered in films like Food, Inc. go far enough. This entertaining documentary showcases the rapid and at times comedic evolution of three people who discover they can change the world one bite at a time.”
We Feed the World
“In the 2005 documentary We Feed the World, Austrian filmmaker Erwin Wagenhofer travels to find out where exactly his food comes from. Wagenhofer takes viewers to France, Spain, Romania, Switzerland, and Brazil while presenting the ironies of the world’s food systems. For example, Latin America produces much of Austria’s livestock feed, while a quarter of their own population starves. The film features interviews with Jean Ziegler, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, and Peter Brabeck, Chairman and CEO of Nestle International. We Feed the World illustrates the effects of globalization and industrial food production on the world’s food systems and highlights the global repercussions of hunger.”
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