Too bad I am not writing this post fresh from the memory, I have seen this documentary about three weeks ago. I think if I wrote this the day after, it would have been more emotional, but I just couldn’t get to it with all the exams.
I thought I would never watch this movie, but I wanted to show it to students at my University, to expose horrible things done to animals by industries and groups around the world. A friend, who was helping me organize this movie night, told me this one thing that made me watch Earthlings:
“If animals live and die in these horrible conditions and they experience all these terrible things, then the least we could do is watch and understand. If it is so hard and impossible to watch, imagine how it is for the animals…”
And also, since people came to see the movie which I was showing, it kind of looked bad on me to go away for 2 hours and come back for discussion not knowing what those people have seen.
And so I watched it. The movie focused on four areas of our exploitation of animals: Food, Pets, Clothing, Entertainment. Emotionally, it was very hard to watch, people were crying, and few of them left after the Food part. I have kept my eyes on the floor for the most part of it, for me listening was enough. Hard enough, that I could not listen to the parts about veal slaughter and fur and had to leave the room.
Indeed, this has been the most revealing, emotional, and most influential films of all times. If this doesn’t make people think about how we treat animals, nothing will (of course, if only they experience the slaughterhouses, fur farms, and dairy farms themselves). After the movie we have done a discussion session where people asked my friend (who is the best animal activist and a long-time vegan I know) all the questions such as: If I buy meat from organic farms is it better? But we are meant to eat meat!, etc. But for me, a statement by one of the non-vegan-non-vegetarian audience members that I remember the most was:
“Even though I love meat and think that we are supposed to eat meat I am ready to sacrifice it because of how the animals are treated in modern-day farms.”
Personally, I do not agree with statement that we need to eat meat, but it helps to understand that the issue is so important that being exposed to animal abuse even through a documentary is able to change one man’s life in one night.
April 17, 2010 at 9:16 am
wow. this is the first review of this movie (and i have read many) that almost makes me want to watch it. i was a wreck after watching just the trailer (and i didn’t even watch the entire trailer!). i applaud you for organizing this event. unfortunately, i think that the people who really need to see this movie never will. thank you for sharing your experience.
~wendy
http://conradvisionquest.wordpress.com/
April 17, 2010 at 2:47 pm
Dear Wendy,
Thank you for your kind comments and I in turn applaud you for watching the trailer of Earthlings. One of my classmates did not show up for the movie screening just because he watched the trailer and he told me it was too much. I never even watched it. I think a lot of people who did show up had no idea what this is going to be about.
On the other hand, I don’t necessarily think that if you are a vegan you need to watch Earthlings…maybe if you need to restore your passion for veganism and you forgot about what’s happening out there. But if you do decide to see it one day, I will make you want to give it to all your friends and family and anyone eating meat/dairy/eggs/going to circus/buying puppies. I also think it has made me much stronger through exposing me to all these horrors. It made me want to act, it made me want to fight, and stand up for what I believe in.
April 17, 2010 at 5:26 pm
i don’t think i could ever watch the movie, but like you said, for me i don’t think it’s necessary. maybe if i need a reminder i can just watch the first few seconds of the trailer. i already want to give it to everyone i know and everyone i don’t know. i think there is so much going on under our noses that people don’t want to know, or don’t take the time to find out, because it will “force” them to think about their habits and to make changes.