Vegan: Everyday Stories, Documentary Film
This compelling, full-length documentary reveals the lives of everyday people who have chosen a vegan lifestyle. The filmmaker travels the country and interviews people from all walks of life including a singer-songwriter and her Texas cattle rancher husband, an 8-year-old animal and vegan activist along with her mother, two record-breaking ultra-marathon runners, and an NFL defensive lineman—and asks them “why vegan” and what inspired them to go vegan?
There is no graphic footage of animals suffering on farms or slaughterhouses, but a filmmaker does describe her visit to a slaughterhouse and what she saw while filming. There are also many interviews with everyday people and well-known personalities and professionals including Moby, Russell Simmons, Ed Begley Jr., animal advocates Gene Bauer and Nathan Runkle, and many others that support and encourage choosing a vegan diet—for the animals, the environment, and for our health.
What Can You Do?
- Eat more plant-based meals – Eat less meat, dairy and eggs to reduce the cruelty to animals who suffer for our food.
- Join a plant-based, vegan community – Find support and like-minded people by going to vegetarian events, taking classes, and joining social media pages and Meetup.com.
- Volunteer! – Help improve the lives of animals by becoming an animal advocate, leaflet for a vegan organization, work at a local animal shelter or sanctuary, join and donate to an animal activist organization.
- Donate – to an organization that advocates for animals, veganism, and works to protect animals and fights animal cruelty.
Some Quotes From the Film
“The vegan world came to her rescue. It’s like a dream.”
“We all have the power to change. We see every day the power that compassion has.”
“All animals should be loved, they shouldn’t be tortured.”
“I’m an 8-year old vegan activist. People don’t have to eat animals to live. I became an activist to show kids what is right. I leaflet now to tell my friends to go vegan. My purpose is to get the whole world to go vegan.”
“Children have a natural connection with other animals, and then as time goes, they become acculturated to accept certain things that don’t feel right. We come to believe that it’s ok for cruelty to become normal. Instead of following our instincts and our humane intuition.”
“What’s more harmful than destroying the planet, taking all the resources, and then poisoning yourself? The way they make the animals today, it’s just pure suffering, 100 billion animals made to be born into suffering. If we want to cause less harm to our world, the one most important thing we should do is get away from eating animals.”
“If we want to evolve in consciousness and become more awake, then the most important thing is practicing kindness to others. To all beings. We are all interconnected, the interconnectedness of life is our primary spiritual lesson, and by understanding that more deeply, we liberate ourselves as we liberate others.”
“Being vegan is simple. It’s about the love, really. That’s the void that was filled for me. To be a vegan you realize more and more how much animals are used for commodities. Do you think just dogs are like that? It was a huge shift for me.”
“Just go to a zoo and look for the biggest elephant, or the tallest giraffe, the biggest water buffalo, or the racetrack and find a racehorse—all of those animals got those rippling muscles entirely from plants—those animals are vegans. Cats are carnivores and they don’t have rippling huge muscles.”
“You get plenty of protein from plants. Research is clearly showing that a plant-based diet beats every other diet.”
“Veganism is a personal transformation based on awakening out of the delusion of being a fundamentally separate self, and competing with others to get something. As we bless others, we are blessed.”
“Can you look an animal in the face and say that your appetite and your desire to eat it is more important than its suffering and its desire to be alive?”
“When she asked where our food comes from—I told her we get it from the grocery store, but she said, ‘No, that’s not where we get it from, she knew!’ So I told her the truth. I told her that we kill animals for the food she was eating—she was devastated. I didn’t even know she knew what death meant. I had to tell her that beef is actually a cow, that a chicken is an actual animal. She said ‘I don’t ever want to eat this again. Genesis is living her beliefs in a way that most people don’t.“
“People already love animals. As animal activists, we just have to convince people that the dog they love is emotionally the same as the cow they eat. The disconnect is aligning people’s already existing love for animals with not eating animals for food.”
“The child has to almost be taught to move past their horror at eating animals. Their horror is justified. The person who eats the hamburger as if there are no consequences to the animal, the environment and their health.”
“My daughter asked me where milk comes from, and I said ‘oh man I said I’m going vegan that day!’ And we went vegan together that day. I knew that was it!”
“Not all animals look the same, but they all need love.”
“We have to plant as many seeds as possible. People will respond to the message of kindness. The first step of any revolution is education. We have to keep educating the masses. We can’t get the right information from corporations.”
“I cried because my friends didn’t understand that they’re hurting animals with their salami sandwiches.”
“We wife’s a vegan, that means no leather products, shoes, handbags, nothing derived from animals whatsoever. When she first brought this up, I was thinking where do you get the protein, calcium, vitamins—but in turns out that nature just provides all that, meat isn’t necessary.”
“Dietary guidelines for Americans are reformulated every 5 years, they’re a big deal—in the year 2000 we sued the US Dept of Agriculture—we found 6 of the 11 members on the committee had financial ties to the meat industry, the milk industry, the dairy business. We won that lawsuit, and the guidelines have been improving since then.”
“I do weight loss surgery and medical weight-loss diets and I teach people vegan plant-based diets work. It’s my first line of treatment. Heart disease is completely preventable. It’s changed the way I treat people in medicine. If you eat a vegan diet it’s extremely unlikely you will get heart-disease, or stroke, or diabetes, or chronic diseases.”
“We are the first beef cattle ranch that is transitioning to an animal sanctuary in the state of Texas. Texas consciousness is waking up!”
“When she created a sanctuary I started reflecting back on my whole life and the way I thought about animals, I was relieved, because I thought if this works, I get to have a bunch of pet cows!”
“I wanted to go to a slaughterhouse and do some filming. I thought they’d say no. The animals were so desperately fighting for their lives, they were fighting and moving around so violently, that when they were supposed to be killed, they were not killed, they were just injured or weakened. The captive bolt wasn’t even placed right, the animals would then fall to the ground, and still alive and moving, and conscious, and then the worker would cut off the legs of the cow, three legs, then the worker would cut the tail—then the worker would pull the skin down off the cow, so that the skin would be right next to her head—she’s still fully conscious. She could feel everything that was going on, she still wasn’t dead. Somehow the cows know what’s going to happen.”
“While filming at the slaughterhouse, I met this one beautiful huge white cow, she was alone, and I spent time with her, and when I was filming inside the slaughterhouse, it was her turn. And she just stared at me the whole time, like she was imploring me to help her, to save her. She stared at me eyes wide open, waiting for me to help her. And there was nothing I could do.”
“Not only are runners vegan, but they are performing at a high level.”
“So in 1999 I was competing in the biggest race of my life, this 100-mile race, I won that race on a plant-based diet, and I had doubted that I could do it. But after that, I went on to run 7 consecutive 100-mile races, all on a vegan diet. Then I went on to run the entire Appalachian Trail (2000 miles across 14 states) on a vegan diet, and broke the record by over 3 hours!”
“There’s definitely a correlation between the spiritual practice of non-harming and veganism. Vegans are trying to cause as little suffering as possible.”
More About The Film
The movie is free and available to everyone, and is a non-profit project and accepts and depends on tax-deductible donations.
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Film Credits
Directed by: Glenn Scott Lacey
Produced by: Eric and Wendy Gabbe Day
Cinematographer: Ian Stout
Starring:
Genesis Butler, Yassine Diboun, Renee-King Sonnen, Tommy Sonnen, Jerri Hastey, Moby, Russell Simmons, Ed Begley Jr., Daniel Kucan, David Carter, David Walega, Gene Baur, Nathan Runkle, Dr. Neal Barnard, Philip Wollen, Salise Shuttlesworth, Scott Jurek, Sofia Pineda Ochoa, Victor Sjodin and Dr. Will Tuttle and more.
