The Documentary Behind The Mask and What I Learned From It
(photo by Jo-Anne McArthur)
Hey Guys,
The mind brims with thoughts for new blog post ideas!
For one, I recently bought some of the shoes I write about and wanted to review them, as I have now seen them IRL (as they say (in real life)) as opposed to just on tiny little images online. I got some great new shoes!
Also…In a panic, I recently deleted a very good post I did about a certain animal rights organization because in doing further research about the cause I became shocked and horrified to learn that the FBI will basically you flag you as a person of interest for even saying you support or agree with what they do. At least that’s what they say in this documentary I watched about them. Paranoid? Maybe, but the internet is a very searchable place. I’m going to wait and do another post about them after I finish the book I just bought about them–Free The Animals: by Ingrid Newkirk (one of my heros).
However I wanted to post an amazing documentary I watched about them on youtube called Behind The Mask.
(creator of the film)
(the tagline says…”if she were your dog, what would you do?” !!)
(Hopefully you can find the rest…up to part 7…so worth watching them all…you won’t want to stop)
The documentary really made me think about a lot of things. Like everything about animal rights that really changes you, there were parts that were hard to watch. But.
This documentary taught me so much. Here are a few things it taught me:
1. It made me more fired up about veganism
2. It made me more aware of the horrors and the ineffectiveness of animal testing. There is a monkey in the film, who was very sweet natured and who made friends with, and tried to groom an undercover PETA investigator’s hair whenever she passed his cage…who was killed for a household cleaning product. The investigator cries when she talks to the camera about how she wished she could have saved him. I feel you, lady. It is an incredible moment caught on film that made me cry, and that I don’t think I’ll ever forget. When someone really feels something, you feel it too.
3. I realized how important it is to buy cruelty free household supplies and make-up and body care stuff too…hadn’t really been understanding why it was so important till now.
4. It made me more aware of how the government and large companies can hardly stop their own machine. Do I think they are evil? No, but I do feel they have made it impossible to do the right thing. How can McDonalds possibly stop producing big Macs without going bankrupt. It’s such a huge machine. But people probably felt the same way about slavery. They probably thought the world as they knew it would grind to a halt. And yet, they knew it was immoral (to say the least). Have you guys heard of The Ghosts in our Machine? It is a film coming out about this very subject. The animals, of course, are the ghosts, hidden from public view within this never ending machine of consuming meat and animal products, and animal testing. It follows the incredible photographer Jo-Anne McArthur, which I did a post about here, who documents animal cruelty basically but in the most beautiful way so that it is truly art and inspires you to rethink things and change your ways. I can’t wait for it to come out…I think they are wrapping up filming, according to their facebook page.
5. It made me more aware of how laws can be unjust. And how people justify to themselves breaking the law. One person in the doc said, “there is a duty to protect life that always takes precedence over the law.” It reminds me of the Hippocratic Oath doctors take in which they vow to protect human life (I believe). Or how a criminal is always treated before being tried in a court of law. Or how a doctor is obligated to help even the enemy on the front lines of battle. Some people said things like “laws are flexible…they reflect the demands of the people. The only way the laws have every been changed is by outcries, protests, and yes, even violence from the people”.
6. It made me more aware of how seriously the government takes animal rights protestors. If you publicly support animal rights, you may find yourself in what seems to be the plot of an action movie. The lead singer for Goldfinger who is very public about his support for animal rights found helicopters circling his home, which was then totally ransacked by the FBI, looking for spray cans or any sign he could have been involved in the aforementioned animal rights movement. The animal rights lawyer who so inspiringly made the documentary found her phone was being tapped, she was being video taped, and many records of hers had been acquired. She was under constant surveillance by the government. Incredible, and scary. Yet these people still stand up and do what they think is right.
One person said about a monkey in a lab, if there were a human baby in a lab being tortured, it would be my responsibility to remove the baby.
What is amazing you will find is the comments under these videos. Check them out. They are vicious.
Let me know if you watch the doc. It is really really good. Thrilling! Thought Provoking. Sad…and Happy too. Five stars!
Any thoughts anyone might like to add?
And expect some more good blog posts to come.
And also…
Like the blog on Facebook if you haven’t already, because I love to see your faces and I am more easily able to connect with you guys if you ever want to connect!
I remain,
-V
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