"Earthlings" revisited, Vegan Spirituality (8/9)

Wm Melton (Compassion Consortium); Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly

We should go vegan or at least vegetarian, don't you think, Tenzin? - I already am.

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Animals feel. (Betty White)

On Tuesday, August 9, 2022 at 8:00 pm (Eastern Time), for the Compassion Consortium has its Film Night, featuring a retrospective on the ground-breaking 2005 film Earthlings, with special guest writer, Director, and Producer of the film Shaun Monson.

Earthlings is narrated by Joaquin Phoenix and features the music of Moby. Additional information is available at compassionconsortium.org.

COMPASSION CONSORTIUM Meetup

Shaun Monson is an American film director and producer and animal rights and environmental activist. He is best known for writing, directing, and producing the documentary Earthlings, which covers animal rights issues within the pet, food, fashion, entertainment, and animal testing industries.

I am a conscious, sentient (feeling) being.

Monson is a founding partner of Nation Earth, the production company responsible for Earthlings. He made a 2015 follow-up film called Unity, which explores the unifying force of consciousness found in humans, animals, and nature.

ABOUT: Earthlings premiered in 2005 at the Artivist Film Festival where it won best documentary feature. It won the Best Content Award at the Boston International Film Festival, and at the San Diego Film Festival it won Best Documentary Film. The Humanitarian Award went to Phoenix for his work on the film.

The documentary is based on the three sectors of life on earth: nature, animals (other than humans), and humankind. It doesn't take long to see that most of the problems faced by all three sectors can be traced back to the third one.

Using hidden cameras and never-before-seen footage, Earthlings chronicles the day-to-day practices at some of the largest industries in the world, all of which rely entirely on animals for profit. Then parallels are drawn between speciesism and racism, sexism, and other oppression.

This film is ground-breaking and had a profound impact on human treatment of and interaction with non-human animals. It was a breakthrough event on our long road to compassion for all living beings.

This Meetup wants to celebrate the film for its tremendous impact and also discuss with Shaun Monson where things stand now. It seems that so much has changed, yet so much has not.

Issues to be explored in discussion with Producer Monson:

• His life as fulltime animal rights frontliner
• The role of documentary films in animal liberation
• How Earthlings has impacted the animal rights movement
• What has changed in the 17 years since the film was released
• How can those of us who care about animals work more efficiently on their behalf
• Where we've made the most progress for animals and which areas are lagging behind
• What gives Shaun Monson the most hope
• A teaser of the film that will start filming days from now

The hour will include scheduled time for Q & A, so all will have this rare opportunity to converse with this gifted filmmaker and humanitarian.

Please share widely about this event and be sure that friends who care about animals and the future of the planet have the chance to experience this discussion. It's not likely to come around again anytime soon. More

ADVISORY: This film contains graphic scenes of violence to nonhuman beings (earthlings) and can be difficult to view. It is not for children, very empathic people, or anyone suffering from PTSD or related disorders. Many people will not want to see the film, and it is in not necessary to view it in order to enjoy, appreciate, and be inspired by this evening's retrospective.

However, if you have not seen the film and would like to, it is available to watch at many places on the Internet. Simply Google “watch Earthlings film” and see the many options. Check out the trailer (with nothing terribly graphic) here.