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14th DMZ Docs(2022)

I AM DOCU



Just Animals

Saila KIVELÄ, Vesa KUOSMANEN

  • Finland
  • 2022
  • 80min
  • 12 +
  • DCP
  • color

KP

Synopsis

A personal documentary that portrays Saila, an activist for animal rights, facing her own limits when she realizes that the utopia she has always fought for will never be as she imagined.

Review

Saila is an activist who has been running a radical animal liberation movement by secretly filming and releasing videos of factory-style livestock farms to inform the truth. However, while gradually worrying about the movement, she gets tired of seeing lives being abused. What is the point of witnessing and reporting the horrific environment and death of animals when risky accusations end up with fights against farmers rather than affecting the industry as a whole? She now holds her camera, which she had used to film animals in farms, to advance her animal rights movement. And while she confides in her inner worries, she captures two struggling characters unwaveringly up close. On one side, there is an activist who denounces animal breeding sites, and on the other side, there is an older sister who seeks a way to guarantee animal rights through party politics. Saila goes on to ask how can one continue to care for animal rights and how the animal environment can be changed. How can we see? And if we can see, will we feel? And if we feel, will we do something about it?

Director

  • Saila KIVELÄ

    Kivelä has worked as a journalist and produced many cultural events. To the broad public she is known from her relentless work related to animal rights issues. Just Animals is her debut as a film director and scriptwriter.

  • Vesa KUOSMANEN

    Kuosmanen is a Helsinki based film director and screenwriter. He has directed the feature film Night Goes Long(2015) and various short films, co-founded a vegan culture space and produced several events.

Credit