animal welfare Tagged Articles at Cinematical

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.

Film Your Issue (FYI), a film competition targeted at young Americans age 18-24, invites participants to create 30-to-60 second films about social issues as a way to "empower young adults in being engaged, involved citizens and giving them a voice". Competition has five suggested categories:  Global Issues/UN Millenium Development Goals; Animal Welfare; Arts as a Global Diplomat and Cultural Bridge; Music-driven (solo, band or music video styled film presenting a social issue through music); and Integration of Film and New Media, which will integrate fim and internet-based technologies via through an issue-based page on MSN Spaces.

Celebs including George Clooney, Walter Cronkite and Philip Seymour Hoffman are involved in the project, along with various political leaders and media corporations including Microsoft, MSN Spaces, USA Today, mtvU and Entertainment Weekly. The United Nations and UN Millenium Campaign, The Humane Society of the United States, and USC Center for Public Diplomacy are also involved in the project, which is in its second year.

Top finalists will be sponsored by MSN Spaces to attend the Sundance Film Festival 2007, and various other prizes are offered to finalists and semifinalists. Submission deadline is May 1, 2006.