Still one of the best documentaries about if you ask moi! In terms of sheer exposure of subject but also for it’s multidimensional disclosures that almost infer multiple documentaries (with concomitant but differing focus) condensed into one single picture. There’s nothing vague about the results either & the factual revelations & statistical figures (not to mention that so many of those figures come inadvertently from those that would rather you didn’t know) are overwhelming & resoundingly rock-solid (it’s the kind of indisputable expertise that will proselytize many nay-sayers/opposition-figures even).
At it’s core crux, Cowspiracy is about the crisis/debate& incognito elephant in the room – the greatest & largest contribution to climate termination/greenhouse-gasses dispensation is commercial meat & dairy production (an estimated of 51% of all global greenhouse gas emissions! The largest of one single sector)! But surpassing this reality, the doco also deals with two more overlaying subjects – corporate capture (in this case, the government bodies & charities/watchdogs/NGO’s that are supposed to be combating climate termination) & corporate conspiracy (the suppression of this subject by many agents & the denial industry that keeps this perilous secret in a state of unknown, massively diluted & forbidden abstract incarceration). What may sound (albeit important & informative) boring is actually transformed into astonishingly riveting theater (without trivializing the topic) and traverses from fairly upbeat & innocent origins into something much’ much more sinister & gargantuan. This is also helped hugely by director, Kip Anderson, an extremely unassuming, laid-back to the point of collapse & openly naïve dude who’s gentle digging ends-up unearthing a massacre way’ way’ way beyond his expectations. Kip’s literal innocence on the intentional evils & fidelity in these organizations is exactly what allows him filmed access with the conspiring representatives of such institutions, which lead to some of the greatest & most telling moments of unraveling onscreen. The misinforming parties are all prepped & contrived, ready to dispense disinformation dismissals, obfuscations & diversions but are totally unprepared for his research & refutations (which grows as he learns of their duplicity). It’s absolutely amazing, to see the body language & facial expressions of the snagged liar/cover-up facilitator, now on camera, suddenly intensely uncomfortable having to writhe & twist. These are truly great moments of film & will appeal to those with sociology & psychology interests. It’s the moment when the complacent liar/guarder of the buried evidence loses the blind-fold/ruse & the subsequent ultra-awkward silence or stammering futile attempts to stop the ship sinking transpire, all on camera (a few are cut, but not without them slashing their own throats in a botched attempt to ward off detection/further divulgement).
The film covers a hell of a lot, all amazingly well & the statistics are jaw-dropping & exactly the kind of shit the public needs to know. Seemingly infinite, hyper commoditized & ridiculously cheap meat & dairy, only made possible by the most fantastical manipulation of tax-payers billions through perverse & insane super-subsidies & “externalized costs” all inflicting absolutely astronomic environmental destruction, is accepted as some kind of “fundamental right”, TINA (There Is No Alternative) or Monomatum under an international globalized market consensus. & it’s set to grow, even though it can’t, literally by the laws of physics itself (there is not enough land on earth). This is the other thing to study/on gross display here – the insipid, biblically arrogant, stuff your head in the sand & shit yourself, indescribably reckless, self-dooming Free Market monopoly SST (Suicidal-Short-Termism). It’s absolutely, completely & totally unsustainable!!!! – so lets keep increasing it as fast as we can! How’s your life on Earth? Wherever you are & whatever end you’re on, why not watch this – because it will be affecting you no matter what! Hurrah for Keagan Kuhn & Kip Anderson for stripping the bullshit clean & baring this absolute bomb for what it truly is!
A.U.M.Films/First Spark Media
Directors -Kip Anderson & Keegan Kuhn