There’s a forthcoming movie that, according to activist extraordinaire Bruce Friedrich, “is capable of fundamentally changing the worldview of its audience.” As you might suspect, the documentary, entitled Speciesism: The Movie, by filmmaker Mark Devries, challenges the commonly-held belief that animals are there for the pleasure and profit of homosapiens. Speciesism — a kind of discrimination that most humans practice against non-humans (because, to put it extremely simply, they are different than us and therefore can be treated as less than — or so it is stupidly rationalized) — is the concept that this movie aims to dissect.
See this film.
Friedrich explains: “… the ramifications entailed in questioning our speciesist assumptions are tremendous: Our entire political discourse centers on how policies will affect humans. If we conclude that speciesism is not justifiable, our thinking about nearly everything in our lives will undergo a transformation.”
Speciesism: The Movie explores this question through interviews with activists of many stripes, as well as factory farm workers, vivisectors, and everyday Janes and Joes.
I, for one, am waiting with bated breath to see this documentary. As animal issues continue to permeate mainstream media and consciousness, documentaries will inevitably be among the resources to emerge (like everyone’s favorite, Vegucated), yet there is still a dearth of films out there that really go there. It seems that Speciesism: The Movie is one of the few that is paving the way for more budding filmmakers to take the ethical plunge, ask the hard questions, and capture it on videotape.