Natalie Portman has been involved in all sorts of films in her career, but her next project is not a serious drama or an action-adventure story, it's a documentary about the factory farming industry. Portman is producing, as well as narrating Eating Animals, and the first trailer for the new documentary shows the complete film will be the sort of thing that might make you begin to consider where your food comes from a little more because there's something just a little unsettling about some current practices. Check it out.
In addition to narrating Eating Animals, the trailer shows us that Natalie Portman is also acting as a producer on the new documentary, which is being distributed under the Sundance Selects banner. The project is close to Portman's heart, as she has previously stated that she became a vegan after she read the book of the same title by Jonathan Safran Foer which this documentary is based on.
A documentary that's going to investigate the way that meat makes it from the factory farm to the table is bound to show off some aspects of the process that most of us would probably rather not think about, the sort of thing that might make you consider becoming a vegetarian or vegan yourself if you're not one already. However, what might be the most interesting thing about Eating Animals, based on the trailer, is that it doesn't appear to be a blanket condemnation of eating meat, but rather the particular process of factory farms, which produce meat in mass quantities. The argument here seems to be that producing meat for consumption isn't inherently bad, but that there are better and worse ways to do it. The farmers that we see at the beginning of the trailer are still farming animals for food, but they believe their way of doing it is better for the animals.
While there will almost certainly be an animal rights aspect of Eating Animals, this new documentary will also follow in the footsteps of the book and deal with other side effects of factory farms which aren't necessarily the greatest. Those that work in the slaughterhouses are potentially dealing with poor working conditions and the environmental impact is also something which should be taken into account when calculating the cost.
Whatever your opinions on eating meat in general, it's difficult to argue that it isn't at least worthwhile to have an understanding of where all your food comes from, Eating Animals looks to provide some useful information. Whether or not it will change minds remains to be seen. Keep an eye out for the new documentary when it opens in theaters on June 15.
