UnchainedTV: Why This Film Festival Really Rocks!

0:00 Host, Jane Velez Mitchell. We've got breaking news for you. The International Vegan Film Festival is in the house. And this is an extraordinary film festival that is really discussing the most important issues of our day, climate change, habitat destruction, the horrors of factory farming, and what we're doing to wildlife on this planet. I mean, we've got a problem, but we also have solutions. And one of the most effective ways to change hearts and minds is with video, documentaries, and even reels. IVFF is now accepting social media reels.

0:45 So get ready to submit people if you have any kind of video content that you think is life-changing. We've also got something exciting to tell you about in that the IVFF International Vegan Film Festival has a brand new executive director. And we're so excited to have her here speaking to us today, Emma Schwartz, who I was so really blown away by her bio, just the fact that she's a cellist and a classical music cellist. I'm like, oh my gosh, on top of that, you do all of these other things. So I just wanna say welcome to our panel.

1:28 We're also gonna talk to the director of an incredible film that could reduce the amount of animals killed by more than 90%. So let's go straight out to Emma Schwartz, who is the new executive director of the International Vegan Film Festival. Emma, congrats. Tell us, what is your vision? Hi, Jane, thank you so much for having me today. I'm so honoured to be here with you all. Yeah, the International Vegan Film Festival is really entering a new exciting stage of growth. The most, I think, exciting new development, as you mentioned, is that we're now accepting social media reels as a category in our festival, because we truly believe that one, social media is an absolute art form that deserves recognition.

2:13 It's really difficult to create effective social media reels. And we believe that those creators who are doing that effectively deserve to be recognised. But we also see social media as the centre of modern content consumption. Social media is where most people get their information nowadays. And so we wanna recognise the creators who are reaching vast audiences through social media, because social media is really the centre of modern content consumption and animal activism. And you also, though, have great films and we are at Unchained TV, really so honoured and delighted to be streaming a lot of those films.

2:59 We have a category on Unchained TV that lists a lot of the films from the IVFF. And here's just a few titles. You may recognise some. The Ghosts in Our Machine is an extraordinary award-winning film. And then you have some lighthearted, I would call them maybe experimental films where they're experimenting with fiction. And we also have an incredible film we're streaming right now called Not a Nugget. And I wanna play a little clip of Not a Nugget, and then we're gonna talk to the director. In 2017, I volunteered to look after a rescued chicken while a home was found for him.

3:58 His rescuers had named him Ian, which stands for I Am Not a Nugget. Oh my gosh, what an incredible film. I'm really honoured to be streaming it. And we have Mark Middleton, the director, and that was his voice. So tell us, Mark, what inspired you to do that film and what impact do you hope it has? Jane, thanks very much for having me on. Yeah, so Not a Nugget is a short film that I made in 2022. It's a student film that I made at the USC Documentary Summer Programme in six weeks.

4:40 And really, it's kind of a practise film for a larger project about chickens that I'm working on. But my goal with the film was to sort of put chickens in the context of companion animals. And in the film, I sort of relate the chicken to my dog and my cat that I had at the time and sort of show that chickens are really intelligent, sensitive animals who are really misunderstood and very underestimated, I think. Ian was this bright personality and he had all this life in him.

5:21 And he had a lot of behaviours that I thought were similar to my cat. There's that shot right there where he was sleeping next to me like my cat. And then sort of relate that to chickens on sanctuaries and the larger issue of chickens on farms that Ian was the breed of chicken, the exact breed of chicken, the Cornish cross that people eat. And he's exactly like the chickens that are raised on farms and slaughtered for food. And so the number of animals, the number of chickens being killed on those farms, it's like 9 billion a year in the US, tens of millions of them every single day.

6:14 Yeah, and this is just one image of a chicken that was actually submitted in a legal case recently here in California. And that doesn't even begin to describe or paint a picture of what literally happens to these birds. It's really unfathomable. And so by actually just showing people that these animals are individuals, if we could convince people to relate to chickens the way they relate to dogs and cats, we could literally reduce by more than 90% the total number of animals killed.

6:59 So I love that you did this film. And we're gonna talk a little bit about a feature length film that you're working on with a similar theme. But first we got a caller, Lindsay and Tarzana, your question or thought for our panel with the International Vegan Film Festival. Well, thank you, Jane. I'm both excited and very, very sad. I did watch, can you hear me? Yes. Okay, I did watch, I Am Not A Nugget, and my heart was broken by that. I already had a parrot, so I knew a little bit about birds, although chickens and parrots are different. They're still a, they're both birds and they're wonderful animals.

7:44 And so that was sad, but I'm so happy that you could make that. And if enough people could see how much they are like dogs and cats, I think more people will stop eating them. And I'm very excited about the film festival. And I may be submitting a reel because I'm a content creator. And I think it is the best way right now to reach our audience as animal activists. So thank you so much for what you're doing. And I'm intrigued by both of you and the work you do. So thank you. Wow. Thank you for calling in. So how do people submit? What are the different categories, Emma?

8:26 What would you say to people who say, well, I'm curious, but it's a little, it is, can be a little intimidating, the process in general for any film festival. Absolutely. So our submission process is really easy. You just go to our website and there's a big tab that says submit film. And it takes you to the Film Freeway platform, which is very systematic. You just upload your project and then submit it to our festival. So the process is very easy. For social media reels, you can actually even link to the actual Instagram reel. So you can copy the link from Instagram and then input that into Film Freeway. And we see it on our end. So you don't even have to upload a separate file. You can just link to Instagram.

9:07 So we try to make it as accessible as possible for people. And I'd love to, I love Lindsay's point and Mark's point about making farmed animals more visible to people. Because one of the challenges that our society faces is that farmed animals are hidden from us. We don't see them. We don't see their individuality. We don't see their personalities. They're hidden in sheds far away from the road because people, because the industry doesn't want us to see what they're doing to them. And I love films like Mark's that really bring farmed animals to the forefront and show their individuality and their personalities and their capacity for love and relationships and friendships.

9:48 And I think that films like Mark's, like I Am Not A Nugget, really are the way that we're going to change the world because we need to show people that farmed animals and chickens are just like the animals that we love. If we can inspire that connection and that love in people, that's how we're going to shift perspectives and ultimately shift the global supply chain. So I just wanna say that I think Mark's work is incredible. And we at International Vegan Film Festival wanna support anyone who is creating content that is inspiring positive change. How many films do you get, Emma? Yeah, so we usually get around 50 films submitted every year and then at the annual festival, we usually screen around 10 to 15, although we do present awards to films that are not able to be screened at the film festival because of time constraints.

10:48 So just because films aren't screened at the festival doesn't necessarily mean they can't win awards, but we try to make the festival as interactive as possible for our audience because we really want it to be a very inspiring experience. So yeah, 50 films are usually submitted and then we select 10 to 15 to screen and then we give awards in eight different categories. Wow, well, again, Unchained TV is really thrilled to have a category on Unchained TV. This is a shot of the category. We've got well over a dozen of the films that have been a part of the International Vegan Film Festival and we're so excited that Not a Nugget is one of them as well as A Dying Sea, which is such an important film as well, covering a different aspect, covering the fact that we've got seas that are dying and all the sea life inside those seas are dying.

11:48 And so let's take a quick look at that film and then we can discuss it on the other side. This is just one clip. I urge everybody to go to Unchained TV and watch this. If you care about our seas, this is just, oh, it's a wake up call. It may seem like a boring experience, but you should give it a try. You will realise that cleaning a beach involves more than just removing some trash. You will start to ask yourself more and more questions by putting every type of trash into the garbage bin. The extent of our plastic consumption has been communicated to the public many times. Even consuming with a more mindful approach would be a beneficial next step.

12:37 When we travelled to Turkey and clean beaches, we actually didn't notice any major pollution. But just because we didn't see it doesn't mean that it wasn't there. So, wow, this scared the wits out of me and I related because I live in California at the beach. I walk my dogs today along the beach and we've experienced the red tide which is making the sea lions sick. And of course there's an animal connection. It's all the runoff from the cow facilities and the CAFOs, the Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations in Northern California.

13:18 And all of that's going into ultimately the water, a lot of it. And then it's polluting the water. It comes down here and then the sea life is sick. But when you look at the ocean, it looks great. So it's that dichotomy. And I really, one of the things he says in the film is that this is a cautionary tale. This is a small enclosed sea in Turkey, but that something like this could happen to the Mediterranean. It's what they see when they go under the water that is truly shocking. So let me ask you, Mark, as a filmmaker and an animal activist, do you see as we desperately try to wake people up to the unfolding horrors of climate change, habitat destruction, wildlife extinction, ocean dead zones, are films a key to trying to wake people up?

14:12 Yeah, absolutely. I think that there's actually some data on this. I mean, there's both anecdotal evidence and data that documentaries really do affect people. I mean, just personally, I've talked to so many people that have said that they made a change in their diet because of a documentary that they saw. And a number of years ago, there was a study that was done that asked people what sorts of media or what sorts of interactions influenced them to make positive changes in their diet towards vegetarianism or towards veganism. And documentaries was one of the top things that people mentioned changed their mind.

14:52 I think that the form of film has tremendous power to influence people and affect people's emotions and also to deliver information, that you have all these different tools of rhetoric. And especially with documentary, it's such a vastly versatile form of art. There's so many ways that you can do it. There's really no way to do a documentary wrong, I think. There's just like so many tools that you have at your disposal to influence people. You have music and art and information, visuals. And yeah, I just think you have all the power of film that you can use to change people's hearts and minds.

15:39 Well, just to be provocative for a second, because running a streaming network myself and getting a lot of submissions, there are times where, wow, I say this is well-intentioned, but it looks easy, but not everybody can do it. And so how do you, Emma, encourage people to remain creative but also when it comes to awards, the reason boards exist is that there are excellent films and there are not so excellent films. So who's judging? Where are your panel of judges and what is the criteria that they use? Yeah, that's a great question. So our judges at IVFF are all industry professionals.

16:21 They're all either filmmakers or content creators. One of them was even featured in the film, Eating You Alive. He was a cast member in that documentary. So we really try to source from industry professionals who know filmmaking inside and out. And one new thing that we're adding this year is that every filmmaker and content creator that submits to IVFF will get written feedback on their work from our judging panel. So whether or not you're chosen for the festival or get an award or anything, you will get feedback from our judging panel because our mission is really to empower advocates that are using art and filmmaking to advocate for animals.

17:02 So we want to make all of you the best that you can be. So we want to give you feedback so that you can come back year after year better and better and make more engaging content and impact people more and inspire people more to embrace veganism. So some of those criteria that we use for the judging process are first and foremost, the story. We really are looking for content with a central storyline that not only engages the audience, but reaches their hearts. If you think about when you've watched a film or documentary and you've been impacted by that, almost always it is the story that gets to you the most. So we're really looking for impactful stories.

17:46 And then there are other things like the cinematography. How are you presenting the story visually? How are you engaging the audience visually to enhance that story? And then below that, how are you using scoring and music to enhance the emotional atmosphere that you're creating for the audience? So those are just a couple of criteria that we use to judge our films. Well, I'm really happy to see that it's not just something that's done off the cuff, that you have a panel of jurists who are experts and that you have specific criteria. Because I think that really is important. Okay, we've got another caller, Paige in Los Angeles.

18:28 Your question or thought for our team, part of the International Vegan Film Festival. Thank you. Amazing. My question is the future, where do you see this going for the future? And people like myself who are activists, how can we get involved? Great question. Back to you on that one, Emma. Yeah, yeah. So I am really hopeful for the future and I will give the audience here a resource that I think is really helpful. So there's this research institute called RethinkX. It's rethink and then the letter X. And what they do is they analyse industries and analyse research and then come up with predictions for the future.

19:11 And they recently did an analysis on the global food chain and animal agriculture in particular. And they predicted that the rate of innovation with food technology is innovating so fast that precision fermentation will outpace meat production in terms of cost effectiveness and level of production by the year 2030. And they literally said, this is a quote, they said that the cattle industry will be all but bankrupt by the year 2030 because food technology will have outpaced it so much.

19:53 Who is this? Who said this? This is a research institute called RethinkX. Yes. And I can send this food report to you, Jane, for your audience later. But I'm really, really hopeful for the future. I think that technology is innovating so fast that it will honestly, precision fermentation will be cheaper than meat production. And these companies just wanna make money. So they are going to go with the most profitable way of producing food. So there is hope for the future, but what we can do as activists now to accelerate that shift in the global supply chain is inspire our communities to embrace veganism and a vegan lifestyle because the consumer market and what consumers demand determine the behaviour of these companies.

20:46 They just wanna make money. So if we show them that consumers want vegan products and want precision fermentation, they will make it. They will shift away from animal agriculture. So the most effective thing we can do in our everyday lives is inspire our community to embrace a vegan lifestyle. And one of the ways that you can do that, if you have skills for content creation is creating content on social media or making films. And Lindsay Baker says, what a helpful show. I'm so glad I tuned in. Yes. And the most profitable way of producing money. I don't know if that was ironic, but it's a clever commentary. You know what, from your mouth to God's ear, as the old saying goes, I certainly hope you are right.

21:30 And it's something that I think we all, those of us who see the horrors of animal agriculture on the animals, on human health, and on the surrounding environment, we are literally, in my case, praying for your outcome that you just predicted. But we also know that there's a war being waged by that industry that you say is going to essentially vanish. They literally have a command centre that is like part Pentagon, part Fox News in Colorado, according to an article in the Guardian. And they do things like masters in beef advocacy programmes, where they have thousands of people who are pushing, pushing beef, but also attacking vegan options.

22:19 So where does that fit into all of this? Because it's such a complicated subject. Honestly, Mark, if it were just a question of people seeing suffering and stopping, I would think that most of the world would have stopped because you have to be living under a rock at this point, not to have seen some of the horrors that are unfolding in the factory farming. I don't even call it factory farming anymore, the animal factory system. Yeah, so, I mean, certainly any industry that is threatened is that has a vested interest in making money off of exploiting animals is going to act to defend itself.

23:04 I think that that's kind of just shows how threatened they are. And really the only way that they can keep operating is for people to remain in the dark about what they're doing. I think there still is significant information that can be released about, not just about what the industry is doing to animals and how they abuse animals, but also about just animals themselves and increasing people's understanding that these animals are bright, they are sensitive, they do feel.

23:46 I think that people still greatly underestimate chickens, people definitely greatly underestimate fish. And I still think that we have ground to cover in terms of our understanding of these animals and our sympathy for them. But certainly, you know, you could say that people would have gone vegan by now. I still think that there are more people out there that can be influenced. And maybe there's people who won't go vegan all the way, but perhaps there's people who would make a change like just stopping eating chicken. And that's a very positive change that gets you most of the way there in terms of helping animals, land animals only.

24:33 We got another caller, Emick in Los Angeles. Your question or thought for a fabulous panel regarding the International Vegan Film Festival. Hi, this is so good to hear that you started it. I wonder first how the reactions were in Europe since it's international and other countries. And also I wouldn't know if there's any known names in the judge panel, like famous actors or whomever could even deliver the message in a further. And I'd like to include for the three, even the farmers and corporations and government should be included in these actions that create movies to educate themselves and people.

25:20 Thank you so much. Thank you, Jane. Thank you, Emick. Yeah, do you have any famous judges, Emma? I think I'm certainly famous within I think the vegan filmmaking industry. So one of our judges is Jasmine Levya and she created a fantastic documentary called Living in Plants. So she is a great judge. We also have a judge, Jonathan Roseberry. He worked for Animal Outlook and has produced a lot of content in the space. So he's a real expert on not only documentary filmmaking but also short form content as well.

26:01 So our judges are very well known in the vegan content creation space. And we have a few more. So yeah, we really, really try to source from judges that not only know filmmaking but also know the message of animal advocacy because that is what our mission is all about is to inspire audiences, to embrace veganism, to elevate animal activism to an art form and to empower those activists who are using filmmaking and content creation as a medium for advocating for change. Well, I'm gonna play devil's advocate here for a second. One of the reasons I love Not a Nugget is that it's upbeat when it starts.

26:43 It doesn't scare people off because I do see, we see the stats. By the way, Jasmine Levya, one of your judges also made the Invisible Vegan which is streaming on Unchained TV, an incredible documentary about her own journey to veganism and her family's health problems from eating the standard American diet. It's a really good film. So check it out on Unchained TV along with Not a Nugget and A Dying Sea. But, you know, I've tried to convince some filmmakers when they present something, maybe you could not start with that sad music and the, you know, the, do, do, do, do, do, do. I'm not even joking.

27:24 It's a trigger for a lot of people. They say, this is gonna be a very sad documentary. I'm gonna be depressed and I don't wanna watch it. And a lot of times if you get people in the tent with something upbeat, like you start, Mark, with the chicken just kind of floating around. She got rescued, right? And she's popping around the backyard and getting to know the dogs. And it's reassuring. You're like, okay, I'm not gonna have nightmares from watching this. And then you stick in some hard facts. How can we get people to start being a little bit more strategic in that regard?

28:10 Because I'll be honest with you, I see the stats of when it's a really heavy duty documentary that scares people off the top and they don't watch the whole thing. They drop off. We've gotta let people know because if a tree falls and no one hears it, does it make a sound? Yes, Jane, I think that is a great point. And I completely agree with you. And as a filmmaker myself and as executive director of the International Vegan Film Festival, that's one of the things that we're trying to communicate to our community of filmmakers is that we have to make content that reaches our intended audience. So our intended audience as animal advocates are not vegans.

28:53 Our intended audience are non-vegans because we wanna reach people who aren't yet vegan and inspire them to embrace veganism. And the key word there is inspire. We want our audience to feel pulled toward a new positive way of life, toward compassion, toward kindness. We don't want them to feel shamed out of an old way of eating. So we don't want our audience to feel like we're shaming them or like we're telling them that what they're doing is not good or that what they're doing is violent. We want them to feel inspired to embrace this new way of life. And so one of the most important ways that we've identified of how to do that is by presenting a story with a central figure, whether that's Ian the chicken or whether that's a human who's going on a journey towards compassion themselves.

29:45 But an audience really connects with an individual, a story. We need them to identify with a protagonist that is taking them on a journey towards compassion. There are films that present all of the horrible footage and statistics and those can be very effective for a certain audience. But for a lot of people, as you said, Jane, that's very triggering and they'll just shut it off. So the most effective way that you can reach the intended audience of non-vegans and inspire them to take steps toward a vegan lifestyle is by presenting compelling stories and then using that story to package strategically information and statistics.

30:28 And so you don't want to overwhelm someone with graphic footage. You want them to identify with a protagonist and then you can include little tidbits of really graphic footage, but you don't want the graphic footage to be the message that the audience is receiving. You want the message to be the story. I couldn't agree with you more. And for example, in one film, which is not this one, but Punk Rock Vegan Movie, and that's Dotsie Bausch of Switch for Good, who's an amazing activist. But Punk Rock Vegan Movie, Moby's movie, which we stream, he does show graphic footage, but it's almost like by the time you grab the clicker, he's onto the next Punk Rock band.

31:11 So I think that quick flashes before people can disconnect and go, I don't want, that is the key. But it's gotta be very short. And I think he's kind of mastered that with that particular film. Just when you think, oh, it's onto the next thing. All right, we've got yet another caller, Michelle in Los Angeles. Your question or thought for our panel with the International Vegan Film Festival. Hi, thanks for having me. I agree with all of you. I have a lot of friends that I show the different reels to on Instagram, and they gravitate towards the ones that are cute and they're telling story and more compassionate.

31:55 What feedback are you getting from people who are not vegan about the films that you have in the festival? Yeah, that's a great question. So I think very similar to the feedback that you're getting, people love happy content when they understand that pigs are as smart as dogs and even smarter than three to five year old human beings. When they see two chickens cuddling together, when they see cows licking each other, all of a sudden their perspective on those animals changes. They start to see those animals as intelligent, sentient beings, just like their dogs and cats that they love. And would you eat your dog or cat?

32:35 No. So changing their perspective on who the farmed animals are is a very effective way to get them to change their behaviour. So the feedback that we get from our film festival is people tend to identify with those positive stories. And then within those positive stories, just like Jane said, you can insert little bits of reality of what those animals are actually experiencing in the factory farming industry. And because they are now connected to them emotionally as individuals, they see each farmed animal as a sentient, intelligent individual, that footage from the industry hits that much harder.

33:17 Because if they think that animals just have no souls, they're not intelligent, they don't feel pain, then that footage doesn't really impact them because they don't see them as individuals, right? But when they understand that these are intelligent, sentient individuals with emotions and relationships and capacity for love, then when they see that footage in small bits, it really impacts them because they see themselves in that footage, they see their dogs in that footage. So packaging the footage in a small way within the larger context of a story is the most impactful way to reach people. And that's the feedback that we've received. And we have yet another caller, Annie in Sherman Oaks, your question for our panel.

34:03 Hi, yes, thank you, Dane. Thank you for being here. Oh, wow, I'm so grateful to have you all leading on as leaders. But one of the things I wanna say is that people always make a crazy thing about factory farms, that animals are different. If there is a way maybe like, you know, the twin video that was made about twins, one being in the factory farm, maybe one piglet, and another one is, and they're the same, something like that. And also I'd love to know how often are you gonna do this and how many countries are involved? Great questions, thank you, Annie.

34:43 Okay, so I'm gonna go throw it, I'll throw it over to Mark. I think that's a really good idea. We know a twin experiment on Netflix has been a huge success and has really impacted people concerned about their health. And if you haven't seen it, it's basically twins, one gets a vegan diet, one doesn't, various twins. And the results are extraordinary. The people who are eating the plant-based diet have better results, let's put it that way. I don't wanna ruin it for anybody. So Mark, what are your thoughts about using some of these tried and true techniques?

35:25 For example, we at Unchained TV did the world's first reality TV series starring pigs called Pig Little Lies. And that was our biggest hit, people loved it. I mean, my neighbour came up to me and was like, what's happening with Beatrice, one of the pigs? I knew that she had really connected with the pigs. So that's a reality TV show. What about sort of imitating that twin experiment concept, but with a pig that goes into a factory farm, poor thing, and then another pig who's out? Brilliant idea. Yeah, I think that could be really compelling, especially seeing how the pig who is at the sanctuary or wherever the rescued pig is living is expressing their natural behaviours.

36:13 Because we know that the pig that's going to go into the factory farm is going to be deprived of everything natural to that pig and deprived of the ability to express many of the pig's natural behaviours, such as socialising and being outside and exploring a natural environment, wallowing in the mud. And yeah, factory farms deprive animals of all their natural inclinations. Yeah, I think that there's what's needed is a variety of approaches to messaging here, because everybody is going to be affected by a different message, like the health message is really going to get to some people, the environmental message is going to get to some people, the animal message is going to get to others.

37:04 And I agree with everything that was said before about sort of trying to make this an uplifting topic. I'm glad that the movies out there exist that show the really graphic footage. I think it's important that those are there, and there are absolutely people who will be affected by watching those things and won't be alienated by it. But yeah, that's definitely the approach that I'm taking is trying to sort of present the information in an uplifting and inspiring way and let people sort of come to the conclusions for themselves.

37:49 Like I've always sort of said that these sort of changes in thinking and the way you see the world and the way you think of animals and adjust your diet, I've always sort of thought of it as something that you need to see for yourself. Yeah, and I hate to be a cynic, but just throwing it out there, a lot of people say, look, when it comes to eating animals, there's three criteria that are the most popular, taste, price and convenience. And that no matter what you say, somebody mentioned back in the days of factory farming or farms being out there, the slaughterhouses, right?

38:32 That people saw that before they hit it and they still ate animals. So I would just wanna ask, is there any concern that maybe no matter what we show people, it's all gonna boil down to taste, price and convenience for the vast majority of people? I think those of us who've been vegan many years, I've been vegan approximately 28 years. There are people I know for my entire life and I've badgered them, relatives. Some of them still don't seem moved by this. What do we do about those people? Do we need to create different films for different types of people and then try to get those films in front of those specific audiences?

39:20 Yeah, that's a great question. So I think this boils down to people's motivations, right? So if you're motivated by health, a health documentary about the benefits of a plant-based diet would be motivating to you. If you are motivated by embracing compassion in all of your choices, then an ethical documentary would be motivating to you, right? And then if you're not necessarily motivated by those two things, but you're motivated by taste, convenience and price, then we need to tailor content to those motivations. And that I think is where content creators creating content around food come in. So another aspect of the International Vegan Film Festival is we host the world's only vegan cookbook contest.

40:06 So we accept submissions for vegan cookbooks and then we give top awards for the top three cookbooks. And that we decided to include that in our film festival because we recognise cookbooks and food content as essential in motivating people to embrace a vegan lifestyle because you're absolutely right. People want their food to taste good, they want it to be convenient and they don't wanna spend a lot of money on it. And so these content creators and cookbook authors are showing these people how to create delicious food that is convenient and that, depending on their perspective, can certainly be done on a budget as well. So some of our- I wanna jump in because we at Unchained TV stream so many cooking shows, cooking series, cook we have, oh my gosh, Lauren Toyota and a whole bunch of other people.

41:01 There's too many to name, frankly, doing these incredible recipes. Would you ever consider doing a cooking show category? Oh, you can absolutely submit to that. So that would go in our lifestyle category. So any cookbook or cooking show content can be submitted to IVFF in the lifestyle category. So we welcome all of those submissions because yeah, food is such an important way that people experience the world. It's such an important part of people's culture. And when we're talking about behaviour change, people don't wanna change their culture. They don't wanna change drastically what they're eating every day. For the most part, some people will when they're going vegan.

41:43 So we need to show people how they can create the food that they love, that tastes good, that's convenient, that's cheap, but just with different ingredients, just switching out the ingredients. So some of our past cookbook authors have been Carly Beaudrug of Plant U and her perspective is all about no waste cooking. So she shows you very easy, convenient recipes that use all parts of the plant. So it's very budget friendly. Tony Okamoto of Plant Based on a Budget has submitted in the past and that's all about producing cheap, delicious vegan food. So yeah, the cooking content is a huge part of advocacy.

42:25 And so we at IVFF definitely recognise that as an integral part of activism. Excellent. We've got another caller, Sarah in Los Angeles. Your question or thought for our panel. Hi, hi. I was wondering if you guys were gonna talk about the Rowdy Girl film coming out, if that was gonna go international because I think the premiere is coming up. Oh, funny you should mention that. Renee King Sonin is going to be speaking along with Moby and the director, Jason Goldman at the Lemley coming up very soon.

43:07 I think it's June 6th. And then there's various screenings here in Los Angeles. They've had screenings in New York. They're having screenings in New York as well. It's an incredible film. And of course it's about Renee King Sonin, a former cattle rancher. She and her husband turned their cattle ranch into a vegan animal sanctuary. So what do you do about big films like that? Because that's a, it's a pretty big film. It, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. It's funny you mentioned that. I was actually at the world premiere of that film in Toronto last year. So I got to see it in the Hot Docs Theatre in Toronto and it was wonderful.

43:47 Renee was there, Jason Goldman was there. So yeah, wonderful, wonderful film. I loved it. And that was before I took over as executive director of IVFF. So I've definitely, I've reached out to them to submit it to the festival this year. And so we're hoping that it comes through, but yeah, we love great films like that because they have such a capacity to inspire change. And one of the things I loved about that film is the story. It was Renee's story. Like you really connect with her. She is such a wonderful figure because she was a cattle rancher. So she can connect with cattle ranchers. She can connect with people who are still in the industry and she can show them, hey, there's no right way to do the wrong thing.

44:34 That's one of the quotes that she says. There's no right way to do the wrong thing. And she realised that as a cattle rancher and that inspired her transition to a sanctuary. So that's a perfect example of a central, strong story that connects to many different audiences. So love that film. Absolutely. And we're trying to round up a whole bunch of people to go to it. So stay tuned, Unchained TV fans, you'll be getting an e-vite so that we can get a really nice group of people there to watch that extraordinary film. And you're absolutely right. People connect with people. You know how they say dogs really wanna be with dogs and they wanna meet dogs. Certainly my dogs wanna meet dogs when we're walking.

45:16 Well, people want to know about people. And that's why People Magazine is the biggest magazine out there. So Mark, tell us about the new movie you're working on and how you incorporate the fact that people wanna hear about people, but you also are trying to show chickens and change their attitude toward chickens. How do you get those two to connect? Great question. So that's honestly still something that I'm figuring out. I'm still in production on it, still sort of developing that story, but I've done a lot of very exciting interviews so far, including with chicken scientists and people studying chickens and who have studied chickens and other birds.

46:04 And know a lot about recent developments in what we understand about bird intelligence. And so that's one way of just relating chickens to birds and showing people who have studied birds very carefully talking about their surprising abilities. And this is probably a little bit of inside baseball or whatever, but I must tell you about the woman that I met at the Animal Vegan Advocacy Summit who runs a chicken micro sanctuary, I believe in Tennessee.

46:45 And I think she'd be a great person to interview because she is just chock full of really delightful anecdotes about her chickens and they are rescued chickens. And she's very upbeat and compelling. And so I think that it's also about showing the people who care about animals. You know, this going vegan has been described as such a sacrifice and such a deprivation when it's the exact opposite. My worst day as a vegan is better than my best day eating animals. So, you know, how do we convey that this is a joyous, fun, upbeat, we're healthy, healthier, we have more energy, we feel better about ourselves because on some level people know they are killing.

47:35 And you had said something about tradition. Well, you know, I was just reading an article. Cheeseburgers were invented in the 1920s in response to the car culture. I think they started in Pasadena. The first McDonald's was in 1940 and then the others followed. This ain't no tradition. This is a very new thing of eating animals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and driving up and picking up a piece of an animal and driving off. Fast food is in response to the emergence of the car culture. And it really occurred to me that now that there's so much remote work, maybe fast food will go bye-bye along with the office buildings that are struggling right now.

48:19 When I was reading this article, I was like, wow, it really brought home. This is not tradition, Emma, the way Americans are eating. Yeah, you're right. You know, I loved in the first episode of the twin experiment on Netflix by Louisa Hoyas, where they profiled the rise of processed food in America. So it really started, like you said, in the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, around the 30s and 40s, where a lot of Americans weren't qualifying for the military. They couldn't get into the military to fight World War II because they were too skinny.

48:59 So the government said, whoa, we have a huge deficit in calories across the country. So we need to create calorie concentrated food that is quick and easy to get out on our shelves to Americans. That's where like spam came from and hot dogs and all these things of just this hyper-processed food that was just designed to get calories onto our plates. But now- Now let me say, they certainly did a good job. They did. Yes, and now we're seeing the consequences of that. And it has, that is several generations ago. So I think that has seeped into our culture as Americans. But I give, I think there's so much hope with the new food technology that is coming out where Beyond Burgers and Possible Burgers taste way better than the animal alternatives.

49:50 I have several people in my life recently who came to me and said, hey, you inspired me to get the vegan burger at this restaurant and I wasn't even with them. And they were like, honestly, it was the best burger I've ever had. I don't even miss the meat. I'm gonna get this from now on. So it's still a burger. It's still what they're used to, but you just switch the ingredients. So I think that's the key. Let people keep their comfort food, but just switch the ingredients to plant-based and then it tastes better. They feel better. Animals aren't hurt. The environment isn't hurt. So I think that's the easiest way. It's a win, win, win. All right, we have another caller. Carol in Massachusetts. What would you like to talk about? Hi. Hi, Jane.

50:32 Hi. I'm from New York, actually, around your neck of the woods. I was in New York involved in animal rights in the 80s and a lot of those people there. I'm in Massachusetts now and I'm calling from there, but I'm a person who goes to Turkey, Istanbul, pretty frequently. And I have come to find myself, of course, involved with animal issues over there. Tends to happen, right? And in Istanbul, there's a long, long, long, long tradition, a beautiful tradition of taking care of animals in a way that we have something to learn in this country.

51:14 The Ottomans were great animal lovers. You walk through the city and you see water troughs that the Ottomans built. It's quite amazing. I urge you, recommend you go. The people in Istanbul care for all the street animals, dogs and cats. They have water bowls. They have the food out. They have little houses for them. And that's so wonderful. And I just wanna say, A Dying Sea, A Dying Sea, one of the films that we've been talking about is set in Turkey and the sea animals are suffering because of people not going out to hurt animals, but they're leaving garbage.

52:01 And then there's the fishing nets. So what is your question for us? Okay. Well, now in Istanbul, these street animals who have always been, always been cared for traditionally. Things are changing, Jane. There's strong tourism economy over there and real estate development. And there have been some entities that have pushed forward a bill and it looks like it's going to pass to round up all of these cared for, much loved cats and dogs and murder them. And tourism, as I said, is a very big issue in Turkey.

52:42 They're doing very well with it. My friends are trying desperately to bring attention to this. Thank you for letting us know about that. We really appreciate it. I would suggest that you contact people for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which is an incredible organisation that responds internationally. And please give me your cell phone. You can do it with our producer and we'll take it from there. I would love to. I've been trying to do that. What's the best way? I'll do it off air, I guess, right? Yes, you can email me at jane at unchainedtv.com. Jane at unchainedtv.com.

53:23 We're running out of time. Thank you, Carol. I appreciate you sharing. Yeah, there is another, we actually did a, we have a film called Hero Dogs about dogs in certain parts of Latin America who are running wild. Frankly, here in Los Angeles, we've got a pet overpopulation problem. I have two dogs that are rescues. One was running in the street. The other, they tried to dump her at the shelter and the shelter said, oh, we don't have any room, take her back. And luckily somebody found her. We've got a lot of problems with animals. How do we deal with all these disparate problems, Mark? You know, you're focussing on chickens.

54:04 This woman's trying to save stray dogs and cats in Istanbul. Well, I think one of the wonderful things about the animal protection movement is that there are so many people that are interested in so many different kinds of animals and so many different animal issues. Absolutely. I think that people should go where, you know, what inspires them? You know, if you're extremely motivated by street animals, absolutely, street animals need help. They need somebody to look after them and to feed them and to help them. If you're interested in working in plant-based meat or in cultured meat, like you can contribute that way.

54:47 If you're interested in fish, you know, there's a lot of work that needs to be done on fish, on helping companion animals, wild animals, animals raised for clothing and experimentation. We need people focussing on all of these different areas. I agree. But I will say your focus, focussing on chickens, has the potential to reduce the number of animals killed. If we could literally, people are maybe not aware that it's something like 95%. I don't have the exact figure, but it's approximately 95% or even more of all animals killed are chickens.

55:28 And I just love the fact that we're starting to get films that get people to relate to chickens. So keep us posted and we'd love to stream that full-length documentary you're doing when you get it done on Unchained TV. Final thoughts, Emma, about how old, last question, how old can the films be to submit? Yeah, so for this year's festival, we're accepting films made in 2022, 2023 and 2024 and social media reels as well. So anyone that has created content within those three years, you're welcome to submit to IVFF. And you can do that at our website at theivff.com.

56:10 So that's one way to submit. And our festival for this year is Saturday, November 16th in Toronto. So if you're in the Toronto area or you're able to travel to Toronto, we'd love to see you in person. But another programme that we do that makes the festival accessible worldwide is our World Tour Programme. So every year we take select films from the festival and then package those into a world tour where we can work with you as an individual or organisations to put on your own screening in your community. And that is going on right now. So our films from the 2023 festival are currently doing a world tour.

56:51 So if you would like to host a screening in your community, you can also find that information at our website at theivff.com. And we are out of time. Thank you, fantastic panel. Everybody at home, make sure to download Unchained TV on your phone or on your TV using streaming devices for free. Oh, let's save the planet, animals and people. See you next time.