COMPASSION CONSORTIUM - JOIN US FOR AN EARTHLINGS RETROSPECTIVE, 17 YEARS LATER

Please join us on Tuesday, August 9, 2022 at 8:00 pm Eastern time for the Compassion Consortium Film Night, featuring a retrospective on the ground-breaking 2005 film Earthlings, with our special guest Shaun Monson, writer, director and producer of the film. Earthlings is narrated by Joaquin Phoenix and features the music of Moby. Additional information is available at www.compassionconsortium.org.

Shaun Monson is an American film director and producer and activist for animal rights and environmentalism. He is best known for writing, directing and producing the 2005 documentary Earthlings, which covers animal rights issues within industries such as pets, food, fashion, entertainment, and animal testing.

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

Earthlings premiered in 2005 at the Artivist Film Festival where it won Best Documentary Feature. It won 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 us), 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 was ground-breaking and had a profound impact on human treatment of and interaction with non-human animals. It was a seminal event in our long road to compassion for all living beings. We want to celebrate this film for its tremendous impact, and also discuss with Shaun where we are now. It seems that so much has changed, and yet so much has not.

Issues we will explore in our discussion with Shaun:

• 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 the most hope
• A teaser of the film that will start filming just days after his time with us

The hour will include scheduled time for Q & A, so you will have this rare opportunity to converse with this gifted filmmaker and humanitarian. Please share widely about this event and be sure that your 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 soon.

Advisory: This film contains graphic scenes of violence to nonhuman beings and can be difficult to view. It is not for children, very empathic people, or anyone suffering from PTSD or related disorders. We understand that 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 you will have many options. You can check out the trailer (nothing terribly graphic) here.