Shaun: It’s radical truth. It’s radical truth. We are documentary filmmakers—it’s
a non-fiction film. It’s a non-fiction film. It’s the truth. So you tell the truth and
you face the truth, and you dedicate yourself to truth. Not to some comforting fantasy,
but to truth. Because you want to know what’s really happening. That’s part of awakening.
Hi it's Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome to another vegan nugget. Most people take
great pains to avoid confronting the disturbing, horrifying, and heartbreaking reality of where
our food comes from, preferring to take comfort in humane labels, shiny packages and slick
marketing.
Then there are those few who run towards the truth with eyes open, forever changed by what
they see, while even fewer still somehow manage the impossible feat of finding hope amidst
the horror. Writer and director Shaun Monson is one these fewest of the few.
It was his willingness to witness horrors beyond comprehension and his desire to share
the truth of humanity’s treatment of non-human animals that culminated in the most iconic
and impactful film on animal rights created to date: Earthlings.
Dubbed “The Vegan Maker,” viewing Earthlings has become a defining moment of radical change
in so many people’s lives, leading to an instant-enlightenment of sorts, with even
the most dedicated meat, dairy and egg-eaters ransacking their kitchens and throwing out
every animal product at the film’s conclusion.
Considering its profound impact, not to mention celebrity narration and soundtrack, it’s
shocking to learn that Earthlings almost never saw the light of day.
I had the honor of meeting Shaun when we were asked to speak at an all-day vigil with Toronto
Pig Save, a grass-roots activism group that bears witness to animals on their way to slaughter.
This is a most vital and powerful action that every person should experience. The day after
the vigil, Shaun was kind enough to make time for an interview.
He first shared about the struggles and roadblocks and initial failure of Earthlings:
Shaun: Well I finished it in late ’04 and the beginning of ’05 and I submitted it
to 25 film festivals. It was rejected from all of them. So, once you start getting your
sixth, seventh, eighth, tenth, fifteenth rejection letter you start thinking, “Is it the subject
matter totally? Or is it maybe not a good documentary film? Maybe it’s not a very
good film; people don’t want to watch it.” So, you know I remember chatting with Joaquin
and we started scratching our heads going, “It’s good, right? We did this right.”
So, we couldn’t understand it. So it really broke me and it took about two years and it
started in Brazil, I remember it was in Brazil for some reason. Someone sent a Portuguese
translation, a subtitle for it saying, “When you make a disc will you please add this.”
Which means they must have had a DVD and paused it and re-typed every line he said in Portuguese
and at the same time we got one from France, one from Russia, we got one in Arabic, we
got one in Hindi – they began to come in in 2007 or 8 I began to see it sort of take
off and I thought, “This is the same film it was in 2005 not a frame is different, we
didn’t market anything.” And it gave me great hope for humanity that people would
sit and look at this horror and begin to watch it. And they did, so it began to grow from
there.
Emily: Securing Joaquin Phoenix as the film’s narrator was no small feat. Initially, Shaun
was told he wasn’t available, so he pursued other narrators to no avail. Finally, with
what he calls “the confidence of ignorance,” Shaun reached out once more to Joaquin’s
publicist.
Shaun: Well, for Joaquin, on Earthlings he was my first choice. And this was in, I started
it in ’99, the film. And in 2000 he did a movie called Gladiator, which he was nominated
for, it was a big huge film and I loved his voice and I had heard he had been a vegan
his whole life and I said, “He’s the narrator.” It was a VHS tape, because this was probably
2000, maybe early 2001 at this point. I sent a VHS tape and three days later I got a call
and she said, “Joaquin will meet with you.” I had a meeting with him, where I think he
was probably interviewing me more than me as the filmmaker/director interviewing him.
I know that’s what it was, and he said yes. And we recorded the next day; we recorded
four times after that.
Emily: The second film in Shaun’s Earthlings Trilogy is a documentary called Unity, which
features an unprecedented cast of 100 celebrity narrators, a four-fold increase from his original
plan of 25, which he felt was necessary to convey the scope of the message. Shaun spoke
to the film’s core theme of non-duality, a unifying undercurrent of his work.
Shaun: But the beauty of these people talking about non-duality, really, or the film’s
main theme: ‘no separation based on form.’ We teach love—and that’s what really got
to me, the fact that we teach love—the capacity for love and in the same breath: aggression,
aggression for these beings. And I thought, “that’s a separation based on form and
that’s just like what racism was or sexism or any, or if your thoughts are different.”
It’s all this separation based on form and then Earthlings, we’re all earthlings—this
is the spectrum of form, so “not the same but equal” became our sort of our slogan:
not the same but equal.
Emily: Finally, I asked Shaun what initially inspired him to create Earthlings, and what
it is that continues to drive him forwards.
Shaun: Just like the stuff we saw yesterday, you know. I interviewed Marc Ching recently,
he does the dog meat, we’re doing something with him, we’re working together on something.
He said something beautiful the other day, he said, “You know, there was a time when
I was abused as a kid and I wanted someone to come in and save me.” He said, “I was
trapped,” and he didn’t explain it, where he was, but he was in a situation where he
needed saving – a human who needed saving when he was too weak, and no one came. So,
one thing that drives him is he wants to save and it’s like what we witnessed, you want
to save them. I don’t get depressed by it. I see horrible, horrible, horrible stuff.
A lot of activists get depressed. You filter it, you just filter it. You turn it into fuel,
you don’t get angry, you don’t lose your mind. It’s radical truth. It’s radical
truth. We are documentary filmmakers—it’s a non-fiction film. It’s a non-fiction film.
It’s the truth. So you tell the truth and you face the truth, and you dedicate yourself
to truth. Not to some comforting fantasy, but to truth. Because you want to know what’s
really happening. That’s part of awakening. That’s part of why people say, “here’s
where my food is coming from, here’s where my clothes come from, here’s where the cleaning
products in my home come from, my entertainment,” what have you. And you don’t shield yourself
from it. You look at it. You face it. And I find more power in that than negativity
or weakness. And I’m encouraged by humanity that they would look at something as awful
as Earthlings—buckets of blood—you know, it gives me great hope for people that are
willing to turn and look at the truth. I never anticipated that. Joaquin and I talked about
it. It’s literally exceeded all of our expectations, and that speaks so well for people. It’s
beautiful.
Feeling hope for humanity is hard enough even when we’re not confronting the darkest aspects
of our culture. But here is this man who’s witnessed the very worst we humans have to
offer, yet remains optimistic.
If nothing else, perhaps the fact that this man who films murder can find hope in our
willingness to confront these atrocities, is—in and of itself—a reason to have hope.
To find out more about Shaun’s work and to see the powerful films Earthlings and Unity,
please visit www.NationEarth.com. You can connect with Shaun on social media via the
links in the description below, where you’ll also find links to more information about
Toronto Pig Save.
My thanks to Shaun for his time, his witness, his activism, and his monumental contribution
to the animals of this world.
If you found hope in Shaun’s message, give the video a like and share it around to help
others make the connection, and subscribe to the channel for more vegan content every
Monday, Wednesday and some Fridays. To help support Bite Size Vegan’s educational efforts,
please see the support links below or click on the Nugget Army icon or the link in the
sidebar. Now go live vegan, run towards the truth, and I’ll see you soon.