“Getting people to look at, and not turn away from, animal suffering is a very challenging task. I think that it’s because we’re all innately compassionate and caring, which makes cruelty so hard to see, but it’s also because to confront animal cruelty is also to confront ourselves, and our complicity in their pain. Once you start looking, it’s hard to stop seeing. The animals who were once invisible – the ghosts in modern society, whom we wear, eat, test on, and use for entertainment, are suddenly everywhere.
Liz Marshall has taken a compelling approach to raising awareness about animal suffering, and animal rights. THE GHOSTS IN OUR MACHINE is a gentle film about a very painful subject. Liz weaves a tapestry of stories, both sorrowful and joyous, showing us the spectrum of what is, and what can be. There is hope, and, we must hope.
I have a postcard taped to my bathroom mirror; on it is a painting of a woman, and the text around her reads The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams, which was famously spoken by Eleanor Roosevelt. Liz, and I, believe that one day, the suffering that animals endure at our hands can end. Liz has dreamt big, and created a smart, moving film that continues to change our lives and the lives of our non-human friends. THE GHOSTS IN OUR MACHINE is one amazing and important piece of the tapestry of the animal rights movement, too. Thank you for dreaming big, Liz, and for including me in that dream! For the Ghosts.”
Jo-Anne McArthur
www.WeAnimals.org
Photo courtesy of Noah Hannibal
Photojournalist and author Jo-Anne McArthur has been documenting the plight of animals on all seven continents for over ten years. Her documentary project, We Animals, is internationally celebrated and over 100 animal organizations, among them Igualdad Animal, Sea Shepherd, the Jane Goodall Institute and The Save Movement, have benefited from her photography. Many organizations have also worked with her closely on campaigns and investigations. The first We Animals photo book was published by Lantern Books in 2013, and Jo-Anne is the featured human subject in The Ghosts In Our Machine, a critically acclaimed and award-winning documentary by Canadian filmmaker Liz Marshall, released in 2013. Her work has been featured in magazines such as Elle Canada, More, Parabola, National Geographic Traveler, Photolife, Sotokoto, Point of View, Alternatives Journal and Canadian Dimension. Recent awards and accolades for Jo-Anne’s work include the 2013 Institute for Critical Animal Studies Media award; one of CBC’s Top 50 Champions of Change; HuffPost WOMEN’s “Top 10 Women trying to change the world”; and one of 20 activists featured in the book The Next Eco Warrior. Jo-Anne hails from Toronto, Canada.
Read our Interview with We Animals.
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