Reviewed
by Ariane Conrad Hyde
03.06.05
How would you react if you found a dumpster full of golden retriever puppies left to die? Would your reaction be different if the dumpster was full of baby girls? How about baby roosters?
The documentary Peaceable Kingdom sheds some light on the species-ism that undergirds our acceptance of and appetite for the products of factory farming, in particular, and of animal exploitation, in general.
But relax—this is not a rabid and relentless battering of the eyes with images of slaughterhouses and factory farm conditions. While there are painful images here (footage from the featured Farm Sanctuary's own rescue missions, as well as from groups like Compassion Over Killing and the Humane Society), there are also peacefully compelling scenes. Particularly of note are the stories of farmers who have come to question the fundamental assumptions behind their community's way of life and have come to view their participation in institutionalized cruelty as unacceptable. Their presence makes this film a more balanced one, and a more useful tool with the unconverted.
Factory farming is a brutal business, for the millions of animals who are imprisoned and then slaughtered, as well as for the farm workers who function as their keepers and killers. Howard Lyman was once a successful factory farmer and cattle rancher. Taught "better living through chemistry" at Montana State University, he enveloped his cows in clouds of antibiotics and pesticides to keep disease down among the crowded animals. His personal transformation came when he nearly lost his life after a risky operation, which at last brought him to terms with his repugnance for his chosen career; Lyman soldthe business and become a farmed animal advocate, environmentalist, and ethical vegan.
Directed by Jenny Stein and produced by James LaVeck, Peaceable Kingdom is the second in their planned anthology of four films called the "Animal People" anthology. Each of the films features people who have experienced a transformation in their relationship to the animal world.
Released in 2004, Peacable Kingdom has been making the rounds on the festival circuits and has been sought after by veggie/vegan organizers and advocates for educational screenings. Because, as is so often the case, a distributor for the film has yet to come forward, you'll have to order a copy off their website (www.tribeofheart.com) or catch it at a festival or other special screening in order to view it.
And it's worth seeing. It's ideal for activists looking for new material, especially with the built-in "loops" section of the DVD that allows for easy display from a van or at an event. It's also an eye-opener for the average viewer: in a non-preachy fashion, it shows what happens to animals in the factory farm system, and why more and more individuals are refusing to continue to be a part of a culture where property and inanimate objects are protected and privileged over sentient beings.
What Peaceable Kingdom doesn't show is a viable alternative world, or the scope of the vegan/farm animal sanctuary movement. While the film does feature one person of color—Peaches Gillette, a black schoolteacher from the Bronx, who compares factory farmed animals to human slaves and likewise compares their struggles for liberation—it's quite clear that this is still, and after no small amount of introspection by the movement, a mostly white effort, and that the long-debated divide between animal rights activists and the broader social justice movement still clearly exists. But what Peaceable Kingdom achieves is no small feat. It has the ability to compel even non-activist viewers to begin asking fundamental questions about industrial animal farming and what an ethical alternative would look like. It offers few solid answers to that question, but has hopefully laid the groundwork for others to come and provide us with a clearer map to where we want to go.
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