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https://scmp.com/magazines/style/news-trends/article/3044826/forks-over-knives-game-changers-meat-family-5-inspiring News & Trends
Forks Over Knives, The Game Changers, Meat the Family ... 5 inspiring films and TV shows likely to make you turn vegan
Celebrities from Lewis Hamilton to Kristen Bell credit their conversion to a vegan lifestyle to watching hard-hitting documentaries What The Health and Netflix’s Forks Over Knives – here’s our pick of the best films to watch if you want to make a more informed ethical choice about what you eat
A scene from Netflix's The Game Changers. Photo: The Game Changers
It’s hard to believe, but many vegans – including celebrities such as Kristen Bell and Lewis Hamilton – credit their conversion to watching a timely documentary. These days it’s not impossible to change your outlook overnight after simply watching what’s available on our favourite streaming services.
From documentaries that open our eyes to the horrors of factory farming, to artful dramas and reality TV shows that make us question if we would eat our own pets, information about a plant-based lifestyle is more accessible than ever before.
Here are five titles to add to your watch list if you’re interested in why veganism is becoming so popular – and perhaps if you should adopt the lifestyle too.
The Game Changers
This insightful documentary really throws the whole “do vegans get enough protein?” debate out of the window. Produced by a team of well-known figures and athletes including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Novak Djokovic, this documentary challenges the way we look at meat, sports and nutrition.
The Game Changers follows James Wilks, a UFC champion, as he journeys to uncover the best diet for athletic performance. The film focuses on how plant-based foods heighten athletic performance and improve overall wellness. Showcasing interviews with various top athletes and respected scientists, this documentary is likely to stir interest in even those who are highly suspicious of a vegan lifestyle.
Okja
After Okja was released on Netflix in 2017, Google searches for “vegan” skyrocketed. Viewers had a strong connection with the fictional story, which is about the bond between young South Korean girl Mija and her giant genetically engineered pig Okja. Unfortunately, Okja is simply created for meat production by the Mirando Corporation, which sees Mija travel across the world to save her beloved animal friend.
At its heart, this film is about the food industry and society’s treatment of animals. With a cast that includes stars like Tilda Swinton and Jake Gyllenhaal, Okja opens viewers’ eyes to the awfulness of factory farming without being preachy or condescending. It simply plays on viewers’ human instincts of wanting to spare innocent animals from pain and harm.
Forks Over Knives
As one of the first groundbreaking documentaries about plant-based health, Forks Over Knives has influenced many people, including celebrities, to adopt a vegan diet for its health benefits. The documentary features several notable doctors and their experiences treating chronic illnesses like diabetes, heart disease and cancer with a wholefood, plant-based diet.
Fork Over Knives features research by T. Colin Campbell and his book The China Study, which links a variety of fatal diseases to a Western diet based on animal products and processed foods. Campbell has interactions with patients that were only given months to live yet have since thrived on a plant-based diet, years long past their initial prognosis.
Meat the Family
A controversial reality show is challenging meat-eating families to adopt and raise farm animals for one week and then decide whether to slaughter and eat them for dinner or become vegetarian. #9Today
Posted by TODAY on Wednesday, 16 October 2019
A strong contender for everyone’s to-watch list, Meat the Family is a British reality show set to release in 2020. It gives families an agonising ultimate choice: to cook and eat a “pet” they’ve fostered for three weeks, or become a vegetarian for life and release the animal to a sanctuary. Families are given an animal as a pet that appears most often on their plates – a pig, chicken, lamb or calf.
To be aired on Channel 4, the aim of the show is to make more people aware of the journey of the animal from farm to plate. The show also hopes to draw attention to animal intelligence, environmental concerns related to eating meat, and the ethics behind every meal. At its core, it forces viewers to contemplate whether they could essentially eat a member of their own family.
Dominion
Even a look at the trailer for Dominion has a strong pull on one’s heartstrings. With close-ups on the fear and sadness present deep in animals’ eyes, it’s easy to glean what this documentary is about. Filmed with hidden cameras and drones, Dominion exposes the horrific practices in Australia’s factory farms. Many details exposed in the documentary are deliberately kept hidden from public knowledge by the large meat and dairy corporations.
The documentary is narrated by Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara and Sia, among others, and has stirred huge interest internationally. Although it focuses on Australian factory farms, according to the director, the message behind the documentary is global. Many viewers online expressed that the film was so raw and disturbing that they could barely get through the first few minutes.