My pulse rate immediately jumped during the first scene of Curt Johnson's documentary Your Mommy Kills Animals. A woman wearing a fur coat is brutally assaulted. I breathed a sigh of relief to see that it was "only" a commercial, but before my blood could settle, the next scene shows a dog being even more brutally assaulted. That footage, sadly, is real, allowing no lowering of the blood pressure.

And so it goes throughout the film. If, like me, you didn't know beforehand the difference between animal rights, animal liberation, and animal welfare, you certainly will by the time the end credits roll. Far beyond a simple educational primer, though, the doc drops you in the middle of a very contentious issue and pushes every hot button imaginable. You're simply not allowed to not react. I found my emotions rolling between heated anger and utter disgust, yet never felt manipulated by the film itself. Instead, director Johnson presents opposing viewpoints in a fairly evenhanded fashion. The film is not entirely without its own bias -- which becomes more apparent upon a second viewing -- but you're allowed to draw your own conclusions without feeling like the filmmakers are shoving you into a predetermined corner.

The basic framing device is the trial of the so-called "SHAC 7," a group of six animal rights activists accused of violating federal anti-terrorism laws by encouraging direct action protests on their web site. The group was formed as part of a worldwide campaign to stop animal testing at the Huntingdon Life Sciences laboratory -- really, to shut down the company. Two members are interviewed, and in their appearances, interspersed throughout the film, they appear calm, kind, peaceful and entirely reasonable. How could they pose any kind of threat?

According to a statement released by representatives of distributor Halo-8 Entertainment, Curtis Johnson's documentary Your Mommy Kills Animals has been pulled by "several" retailers, including Internet giant Amazon.com, in advance of its scheduled release date yesterday. The doc examines the animal rights movements. The statement quotes an unnamed retailer who claims that this is "due to legal threats from a well-known Washington lobbyist who represents major corporations in the tobacco and food industries." Matt Pizzolo, President of Halo-8 Entertainment, stated: "Our understanding is that there is no legal restriction on the film whatsoever and some retailers are buckling under threats that have no legal basis."

Cinematical has confirmed that Your Mommy Kills Animals does not appear on the Amazon.com web site. We asked for a comment from Amazon and received the following response from Patty Smith, Director of Corporate Communications for Amazon.com: "Our understanding is the film is subject to active litigation between the parties, and as a result we removed it from our catalog as per our usual practice when we receive notice of an allegation of copyright violation. We are in the process of investigating whether in fact, that dispute still exists. If the matter has been resolved, and the seller has been given the rights to sell the title, we'll happily list it on our site."

Asked for further comment, a Halo-8 representative told Cinematical that the DVD had been ranked #21 for political documentaries when Amazon received a Cease & Desist order and made the decision to remove the title, canceling all pre-orders. The Halo-8 representative also said that Your Mommy Kills Animals had been booked for a one-week run at the Laemmle Grand theatre in Los Angeles in September, but that the booking was canceled at the last minute due to receiving a Cease & Desist order. The rep provided links to reviews in the Los Angeles Times and LA Weekly for the week (and theater) in question, and says that other festivals and theaters, as well as Halo 8 Entertainment itself, had received Cease & Desist orders. Other online retailers, such as Best Buy, Circuit City and DVD Empire, have product pages for the DVD, though availability differs; for example, Netflix lists it with "unknown" availability.The DVD is available for direct order from Halo-8.

Your Mommy Kills Animals played the festival circuit and was picked up for distribution by Halo-8 after selling out screenings at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal. It received a theatrical release this past summer; Nick Schager began his review: "Those on both sides of the animal rights issue will find much to fume over"; he called it an "in-depth, eye-opening examination of the movement, dubbed in 2005 by the FBI as the nation's number one domestic terrorist threat." My review of the DVD release was slightly delayed but will be posted later today.

My pick of the week is the emotionally charged yet evenhanded documentary Your Mommy Kills Animals -- look for a separate review later today -- but it's a wonderfully packed week for indie releases. Arthouse fans of all stripes should have a field day with Criterion's edition of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's magnificent Berlin Alexanderplatz, originally aired on German television and now restored and available on DVD for the first time.

If you missed La Vie en Rose in theaters, now's the time to catch up with the "superb performance given by Marion Cotillard," in the words of our own Erik Davis. Erik had some reservations about the film as a whole, as did Jeffrey M. Anderson, who called it "a spectacular one-woman show, but not really a movie." The DVD includes a "making of" feature. The anthology Paris, Je T'aime should be ideal for consumption on DVD: 18 short films in 120 minutes. Cinematical's Ryan Stewart felt that only "about 40 of its 120 minutes is worth saving," but his was a minority opinion. The DVD includes a "making of" documentary.

Speaking of minority opinions, I found Argentine youth drama Glue to be acutely irritating, but most reviewers recommended it. The DVD includes deleted scenes for those who can't get enough. On the other hand, I thought French girls' school fable Innocence was visually beautiful yet devoid of any substance. Again, others were better attuned to its wavelength. The DVD includes interviews with the director and an 'explanation' by one of the actresses.

Ensemble drama Resilience (pictured) drew mixed critical response but may be just right if you're looking for more "challenging material," in the words of Variety. Shane Meadows' This is England "derives its power from a pair of extraordinary performances," according to Martha Fischer. And Amazing Grace features a strong cast in the true story of British antislavery pioneer William Wilberforce.

Those on both sides of the animal rights issue will find much to fume over in Your Mommy Kills Animals, Curt Johnson's in-depth, eye-opening examination of the movement, dubbed in 2005 by the FBI as the nation's number one domestic terrorist threat. That designation was apparently the motivation for Johnson's film, yet it's far from the only topic tackled, as the director also spends considerable time and analysis on PETA, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), animal-testing corporation Huntington, and – most fascinatingly – the touchy internal differences between radical animal rights advocates and more moderate animal welfare supporters. They're all highly charged issues of methods and morality, and ones that Johnson refuses to shy away from or takes sides over, challenging claims by all talking-head factions in a manner that doesn't completely obscure his own sympathies (which seem to lie with animal welfare backers), but which nonetheless give his rather comprehensive doc enough even-handedness to elevate it above propaganda.

Titled after a gruesome PETA comic distributed to kids (featuring a cartoon cover image of a '50s homemaker stabbing a bunny), Your Mommy Kills Animals offers only curt history of the cause's roots in nineteenth-century England (where it supposedly led to child welfare legislation), as well as its modern inception in the '70s by a British activist whose unsuccessful peaceful protests soon led to aggressive strategies. Johnson's main interest is today's state of affairs, and violence (or the lack thereof) is certainly one of the chief points of contention, with numerous speakers decrying the FBI's "terrorist" label as an attempt to slander what is "by and large the most nonviolent political-social justice movement ever." Or at least so claims Kevin Kjonaas, the former president of Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty (SHAC) – a subset of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) – and one of six SHAC members prosecuted by the federal government for inciting violence. "They're not Osama Bin-F--king-Laden," says a former PETA board member in defense of the accused. If, however, the ALF's organizational structure – in which autonomous cells carry out militant acts under the banner of a loosely engaged central body – doesn't bring to mind that of Al Qaeda, Johnson's doc nonetheless makes sure to illustrate the less-than-savory fearmongering tactics employed by many ALF members.

What's been going on over at Cinematical Indie the past few days? Let's take a peek ...

• In film distribution news, the provocatively titled Your Mommy Kills Animals (yeesh), which takes its name from a PETA brochure, scored distrib this week. The film played at HotDocs earlier this year to positive reviews from the likes of Variety and eFilmCritic, and sold out screenings at Montreal's Fantasia Film Festival. Congrats to director Curt Johnson.
• This week's Indie Film Blog Group Hug tossed some love around to lots of blogs writing about interesting things in the world of film. Highlights: Christopher John Stack's film An Exercise in Vigilance is screening at the Action on Film International Film Festival in Long Beach, Movie City Indie's Ray Pride interviews filmmaker Usama Alshaibi, Lost in Negative Space blogger Peet Gelderblom has seen Famke Jenssen's sister in her underwear, and guess who's dating indie-film darling Miranda July ... ?
• Been wondering what the members of The Fugees are up to? Even if you haven't, you might be interested to know that former Fugee Pras Michel is starring in a documentary about homelessness. In the film Skid Row, Pras lived as a homeless person for nine days, recording the results on video. The film has been picked up for distrib by Screen Media Films, and will open August 24 in a limited NYC-LA-Washington DC run. If it plays well in those cities, maybe it will get a wider open down the road and the rest of us might get to see it.
• The Guardian posits the question: What great filmmakers haven't had real bios?
• Jette tells us about Paul Verhoeven's Soldier of Orange being made into a musical in the Netherlands -- but she's holding out hope for Showgirls!
• Ryan Stewart reviews Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox.