November 6, 2009
One to Watch Films of 2009
These four major animal-protection themed movies and documentaries are currently in theaters or on dvd
There's currently a lot of great viewing for everyone who cares about animals. Covering subjects from dog adoption to overfishing to factory farmed animals to the truth about Japan's dophin slaughter, animal issues are receiving more screen time than ever.
Here are a few to look for:
The Cove
Currently playing in select cities and winner of audience awards at major film festivals, including Sundance, Toronto, SilverDocs and Hot Docs, "The Cove" is the documentary everyone is talking about. Now playing in select cities, "The Cove" blows the whistle on one of Japan's best kept secrets: the horrific annual slaughter of thousands of dolphins and porpoises by fisherman in the coastal town of Taiji. Some dolphins escape immediate death, only to be sentenced to a lifetime of confinement performing for public entertainment in aquariums and swim-with attractions.Admired for its thriller-style filmmaking and power to galvanize an audience, "The Cove" is garnering the kind of worldwide attention that could bring about the end of the shameful mass slaughter of one of the ocean's most intelligent and social marine mammals.
Read our review.
Find a theater near you.
Watch the trailer.
The End of the Line
Imagine a world without fish.
Coming to DVD in February, "The End of the Line" documents the devastating effect of overfishing and shows us the effects of our global love affair with eating fish. It examines the imminent extinction of bluefin tuna, brought on by increasing Western demand for sushi; the impact on marine life (and resulting overpopulation of jellyfish); and the profound implications of a future without fish— bringing certain mass starvation.
Filmed over two years, "The End of the Line" follows the investigative reporter Charles Clover as he confronts politicians and celebrity restaurateurs who exhibit little regard for the damage they are doing to the oceans.
Filmed across the globe—from the Straits of Gibraltar to the coasts of Senegal and Alaska to the Tokyo fish market—and featuring top scientists, indigenous fishermen and fisheries enforcement officials, "The End of the Line" is a wake-up call to the world.
Watch the trailer.
Food, Inc.
Want to know where your food really comes from?
Currently out on DVD and Blu-ray, "Food, Inc." will change the way America thinks about food permanently. This exciting new documentary from the filmmakers behind "Darfur Now" and "An Inconvenient Truth" takes a stark look at how massive factory farms in America abuse the billions of animals raised and killed for food annually, documenting many of the inhumane conditions and illustrating how these farms contribute to global warming and threaten human health.
"The way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than the previous 10,000," says author Michael Pollan, who's written extensively about food for The New York Times and appears in "Food, Inc." along with Eric Schlosser, author of "Fast Food Nation". "A lot of it is hard to watch, but I think people are ready to take a good, unflinching look at how their food is produced."
The HSUS was pleased to team up with California Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez to host a screening in Sacramento.
Watch the trailer.
Hotel For Dogs
Currently out on DVD and Blu-ray, "Hotel for Dogs," stars Emma Roberts (daughter of Eric Roberts and niece of Julia Roberts), Jake T. Austin, Don Cheadle, Lisa Kudrow, and Kevin Dillon. It's a lighthearted family film that nonetheless delivers an important message: countless dogs, both purebred and mixed, are in need of loving homes. The hotel to which the title refers is an abandoned building in which two young orphans in foster care (Roberts and Austin) have secreted their contraband — namely, a stray fox terrier they've named Friday.
As they visit and care for Friday, they discover another stray, then another, then a series of strays which the young orphans bring to the abandoned building to care for. Eventually, shelter authorities are alerted to the presence of the strays and impound them, but the young orphans are able to spring the dogs before the eyes of astonished city residents, resulting in heightened awareness (both in the citizens as well as in the film audience) of the fact that all dogs deserve a forever home.
Watch the trailer.