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This documentary attempts to provide vegetarians and vegans with evidence to criticize their carnivorous family members during Easter and Passover gatherings. It presents the argument that Jesus was likely a vegetarian, but ultimately relies heavily on the apocryphal Gospel of the Ebionites, a text dating back to the second century. Director Kip Andersen tries to sensationalize the idea by claiming to have “discovered” it in a roundabout manner, adding an eccentric spin to the film. The documentary concludes by introducing Mateo Richard, a vegan Buddhist monk who is supposedly the “happiest human on Earth”. He spends most of his time meditating on compassion and has been found to have high levels of “gamma activity” in his brain.
The information is presented through a series of podium shots, with highlighted text and a voiceover from Andersen summarizing the concepts. However, the film quickly moves on to the next idea – that all influential thinkers were vegetarians. According to the film, Leonardo da Vinci purchased all of the chickens in his town’s marketplace and set them free in the forest, much to the delight of local foxes.
The movie follows a constant stream of claims regarding renowned deceased individuals, lacking substantial evidence and combined with wide-eyed and foolish naivety. Early on, Andersen and co-director Kameron Waters express genuine astonishment when discovering that many Christian ministers they interview, particularly those from the Southern Baptist Convention, actively oppose vegetarianism. They suggest timidly that this may be due to the significant amount of money that agricultural companies and Christian businesses like Chick-fil-A and In-N-Out Burger contribute to churches. Similarly, it is revealed that the methods of killing animals for kosher and halal practices do not prevent them from experiencing significant suffering. This may come as a surprise to some!
Fortunately, Andersen and Waters use a map to journey from the United States to Israel and Oxford, and then to India. Along the way, they gather information from ex-slaughterhouse workers, theologians, historians, animal rights activists, and George Monbiot (a writer for The Guardian). Monbiot makes some logical points about the connection between the meat industry and the climate emergency. However, apart from him and a handful of other contributors who may not have fully understood the project, the rest of the content is nonsense, although it is still entertaining to read.
Source: theguardian.com
