6 documentaries about vegan/vegetarian living
Image by ballardinix from Pixabay
This eclectic selection of documentaries, all of which have already changed numerous hearts and minds, deals with nutrition, health, consumption, sustainability, animal suffering, and the environment. While people who are interested in finding out more about a vegan/vegetarian or sustainable lifestyle often consult books and social media, movies can offer useful and compelling insights that are easy to engage with. ProVeg presents six entertaining and illuminating documentaries about plant-based eating.
Earthlings
USA, 2005
Director: Shaun Monson
Earthlings is one of the best-known and most emotive documentaries to explore our relationships with animals. The animal documentary looks at animals in various contexts, including companion animals, so-called ‘farm animals’ used for meat, milk, eggs, leather, and fur production, as well as animals in circuses and zoos. Filmmaker Shaun Monson shows disturbing images of farmed animals that serve as an eye-opening introduction to industrial animal agriculture. This remarkable film shows just how ruthlessly we treat our fellow earthlings.
Forks Over Knives
USA, 2011
Director: Lee Fulkerson
Obesity is one of the world’s most widespread lifestyle diseases. Forks Over Knives uses medical examinations to show viewers how a poor diet leads to the development of contemporary lifestyle diseases. This food documentary objectively explains the advantages of a whole-food plant-based diet and its various health benefits.
Hope for All: Our Food – Our Hope
Austria, 2016
Director: Nina Messinger
Hope for All: Our Food – Our Hope is an urgent appeal to all of us to actively work for lasting change in the world. Filmmaker Nina Messinger shows the consequences of Western eating habits, removing viewers’ blinkers in the process. With in-depth biographies and evidence-based arguments, this is a compelling and thought-provoking vegan documentary.
Live and Let Live
Germany, 2013
Director: Marc Pierschel
Live and Let Live tells the story of six people who have chosen not to consume any animal products. The documentary deals with the ethical, ecological, and health aspects of a plant-based lifestyle. Director Marc Pierschel addresses the subjects of health, environment, and animal ethics, shedding light on our relationship to animals and the history of vegetarianism and veganism. Pierschel refrains from using shocking images and instead highlights the positive changes in the lives of this food documentary’s central figures.
Speciesism: The Movie
USA, 2013
Director: Mark Devries
Advertisements would have us believe that our meat and milk come from idyllic organic farms. In Speciesism: The Movie, filmmaker Mark Devries reveals the horrific living conditions found in the majority of modern factory farms and investigates the origin of moral discrimination against individuals on the basis of their species.
Vegucated
USA, 2011
Dir: Marisa Miller Wolfson
Set in New York, Vegucated follows three people for six weeks while they take part in an exciting experiment. Ellen, Brian, and Tesla make the switch from eating a diet containing meat to one that is purely plant-based, and soon begin to notice an improvement in their health. The three protagonists are also actively involved in uncovering abuses in animal farming, which they themselves supported only a few weeks earlier by consuming animal products. Filmmaker Marisa Miller Wolfson’s vegan documentary shows how the trio masters the challenges of their new diet and forges their own path toward creating a better world.
