Dominion, the documentary that lifts the veil on our distorted relationship with animals

Rights · Lorenzo Brenna · 2018-10-12

The film examines the main aspects of human interaction with animals, united by one overriding constant: exploitation.

We are accustomed to extolling our intelligence, which supposedly elevates us above all other species, and yet it is by force that we exercise our dominion over other animals. We have subjugated animals to our will, we raise them to eat them, to experiment on them, to wear them and for our entertainment, determining their value solely on the basis of our own interests. And yet, despite the increasingly evident violence and injustices to which we subject animals, even today the morality and validity of our dominion over the animal kingdom is rarely called into question. Exploring the reasons behind this distorted relationship is the aim of Dominion, a documentary directed and produced by Chris Delforce of the Australian organisation Aussie Farms, which denounces violence against animals, suggesting that, as a species, we are capable of doing more.

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The true face of farming

Dominion is a terrible, violent and harrowing film that chronicles the horrors of animal exploitation across every sector, focusing in particular on the raising of animals destined for human consumption and exposing the dark side of modern animal agriculture. Incredibly, many people continue to believe that the animals we eat lead happy lives, cared for by loving farmers who offer them a humane and painless death, "a small price happily paid for a life well lived – we hear in the film's introduction, narrated by Joaquin Phoenix – a mutually beneficial arrangement".

Migliaia di polli stipati in un allevamento intensivo — Dominion, the director explained, seeks to challenge both the entrenched idea that animals are inferior and the belief that our species has the right to treat them as it pleases. Delforce also asks viewers to consider the similarities between racism, sexism and speciesism © Aussie Farms 2018

An industry sustained by deception

Clearly nothing could be further from the truth, and the farming industry is one of the most violent institutions on the planet, relying on consumer ignorance to maintain the status quo. Precisely in the name of truth, since we can no longer afford to ignore the condition of animals exploited for our benefit, filmmaker and activist Chris Delforce has documented, through the use of drones and hidden cameras, the inhuman violence to which animals are subjected across six main areas of exploitation: food, fashion, entertainment, wildlife, pets and scientific research. "The industries that profit from the exploitation and abuse of animals hide behind a wall of secrecy," the film's author stated. "They know that if consumers were to see what actually takes place in the production of meat, dairy and eggs, leather, they would stop being consumers and those industries would rapidly cease to exist."

Hell seen from the sky

To make the documentary and attempt to lift the veil of secrecy surrounding farms, Delforce also made use of advanced filming technologies, such as drones, to observe animal exploitation from new perspectives. "Drones offer a completely new perspective on these industries," the Australian filmmaker explained. "For the first time we are truly able to appreciate their terrifying scale and the way in which the traditional farm has been replaced by these enormous rows of factories, each identical to the next."

Allevamento intensivo di maiali ripreso dal cielo — "The most important thing I want to communicate to viewers is that animals are individuals, sentient beings," Chris Delforce declared. "They think, they feel emotions, they feel pain, they suffer. The pigs that meet a horrific death in gas chambers are no different from the dogs and cats who are part of our family and whom we love. They do not want to die and every viewer has the power to stop all of this… unlike what happens with other social justice issues, we do not need to convince a government to do the right thing — it is entirely up to us as consumers" © Aussie Farms 2018

It's the same the whole world over

The film is set predominantly in Australia, but not exclusively — it also shows farms in Italy, the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom, reminding us that what we see is not an exception; this is not the proverbial bad apple — it is the system itself that is rotten. "The most disarming thing is the psychological refusal of so many people to believe what has been captured on camera," said Marina Berati, coordinator of AgireOra Network, the organisation responsible for the Italian dubbing of Dominion. "With the American film Earthlings, the more sceptical viewers commented that those scenes were exceptional cases or that they had nothing to do with their own country; so the British made Land of hope and glory, which shows the same scenes, now reconfirmed by the Australian Dominion. Every month we witness investigations that document equally tragic situations of incredible violence here in Italy too, and the same happens in every country. If this reality is so horrific that we cannot bring ourselves to accept it, then let us not accept it and let us oppose it, rather than deny reality. Opposing it is easy: all it takes is changing our personal habits — it is entirely within our power."

Orso polare nella vasca dio uno zoo circondato da spettatori che lo fotografano — The film does not set out to propagandise; it simply aims to show how animals are actually used, revealing to consumers the origin of the animal products they purchase and giving them the opportunity to make more informed choices © Aussie Farms 2018

The Italian premiere of Dominion

Dominion was made possible by a crowdfunding campaign launched in 2015 that raised over 19,000 dollars and by a grant from the animal protection organisation Voiceless. The film had its premiere in Melbourne, Australia, on 29 March last year and has been available online since 9 July in its original version. On Sunday 14 October in Turin, at the Cinema Classico in piazza Vittorio Veneto, it will be presented for the first time in Italian, dubbed by AgireOra Network.