Page 30 - aruba-today-20180620

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Wednesday 20 June 2018

Natalie Portman, Jonathan Safran Foer target factory farming

By MARK KENNEDY summer barbeques. Eat
NEW YORK (AP) — Nata- the meat then, Foer says,
lie Portman and Jonathan but not when it isn't signifi-
Safran Foer hope they can cant.
change the world — one Hungry at the airport? Don't
dinner plate at a time. automatically reach for
The actress and the author that old turkey sandwich.
have teamed up to pro- Find another option. Din-
duce the documentary ing at a Chinese restau-
"Eating Animals," an indict- rant? Skip the General Tso's
ment of the factory farm chicken and order noodles.
system that argues we are "If we just remove the times
feeding ourselves all wrong. when we don't even care
The film takes viewers from about it, that would solve
a Perdue contract farmer the problem," Foer says.
in Fairmont, North Carolina, Foer and Portman antici-
who is knee-deep in both pate that the film may trig-
debt as well as chickens ger reactions, with some
suffering horrific abnormali- perhaps thinking it goes too
ties, to a small free-range far and others believing it
pig farm in Thornton, Iowa, doesn't go far enough.
where the animals roam "We're so used to thinking
freely. about the last step — like,
The filmmakers visit various 'Hey, wait a minute, you
farms to make the case wear leather shoes' or 'Hey,
that animals confined in- wait a minute. You step
doors in massive factories, on ants' — as opposed to
fed antibiotics, genetically there's this huge problem in
altered and bred for the In this June 14, 2018 file photo, producer Natalie Portman attends a special screening of "Eating front of us," says Foer.
most meat isn't inevitable. Animals" at the IFC Center in New York. "We can make fixes actual-
"I literally cannot conceive Associated Press ly pretty quickly if we're not
of the person who isn't a afraid of hypocrisy. The fear
psychopath who would "We don't all have to reach the world. This is how our disturbed that they want of being a hypocrite stops
walk into a factory farm the same conclusion but farming system works. And to leave or not watch any- so many people from tak-
and say, 'Looks good to we have to begin at the we have a choice.'" more. You want to contin- ing the first step because
me,'" Foer tells The Associ- same starting point, which Directed by Christopher ue the conversation," she they have to acknowledge
ated Press. is, 'These are the facts of Quinn, the film is the fea- says. they're not taking the last
ture-length adaptation of "The focus of the film is step."
Foer's critically acclaimed these farming practices Portman sees hope for
book of the same name. that we've lost — the tra- the end of factory farm-
But while the book is a ditional, really American ing in the vast demands
whirlwind and freewheel- ways that really pay atten- for change currently roil-
ing expression of the author tion to the beauty and the ing society, including the
wrestling with the notion of detail and the hard work it #MeToo movement and
meat, the film largely looks takes, and the respect for the gun-safety protests.
at the issues facing live- the land and animals that's "There is definitely a new
stock farmers. really being disrespected." generation who is paying
"I was telling a story not While humanity faces huge a lot more attention to this
documenting something," complicated issues — glob- and we do see the possibil-
said Foer, who began ex- al warming, education, ity for people questioning
ploring the origin of meat immigration — Foer and and overturning the status
as he was becoming a first- Portman argue the future quo in a short amount of
time father. "And the film of factory farms can be time," she says.q
is a documentary, rather decided by individual con-
than something in the sto- sumers. Their solution is to
rytelling tradition. It does get people skip meat every
things the book can't do once in a while — multi-
and doesn't do, just as the plied by millions.
book does things the film Foer, whose other books
can't do." include "Everything Is Illu-
Portman, who narrates us- minated" and "Extremely
ing portions of Foer's text, Loud & Incredibly Close,"
says filmmakers never in- and who is a vegetarian
tended to just show 90 (Portman is vegan), knows
minutes of horrific footage converting people to a
smuggled out of inhumane meatless diet is unlikely to
factory farms or their envi- happen overnight.
ronmental consequences. Instead, he asks carnivores
"The point was to make to identify when meat is
something watchable. We important to them — say
want people to see it. You Thanksgiving, birthdays,
don't want someone so July 4, family reunions and