Natalie Portman’s film Eating Animals will go on general release in the US on June 15.
The movie, which is voiced and produced by Portman, is based on Jonathan Safran Foer’s book of the same name. The writer – along with Christopher Dillon Quinn, who also directs – co-produces.
Factory farming
According to the production team, Eating Animals ‘tells the story of the beginning of the end of factory farming’.
Like the book, the feature-length documentary starts with one question: where do our eggs, dairy and meat come from?
The film’s trailer
‘Inhumane’
According to the filmmakers: “Through the intimate narratives of several farmers dedicated to bringing their trade – and the way we eat – back to its roots, the film explores the notion of stepping away from the practices of the past 40 years that have polluted our environment, endangered our health, and caused us all to be complicit in the inhumane treatment of animals.
“Looking at the costs we’ve incurred as our country has become dominated by massive industrial complexes designed to feed the masses, Eating Animals paints a picture of a future where traditional farming is no longer a distant memory, but is instead the only way forward.”
Praise
The movie has already been praised for the way it tackles the topic of industrial food production.
Writing for The Wrap, critic Sasha Stone said the film ‘may be the most important documentary that screened this year at the Telluride Film Festival’.
Stone attributes the death of billions of animals to humans’ ignorance, saying: “As a result, billions of animals take that bottom rung because we’re all so busy just trying to get through our own lives.”
She concluded: “If we want to eat meat, watching ‘Eating Animals’ to understand its full cost is the least we can do.”