AUSTRALIAN PIG FARMING EXPOSED
Lucent, a feature-length documentary about the lives of pigs bred for consumption, deals with the ethical issues of industrial farming, and explains just what happens behind the closed doors of Australia’s many piggeries and slaughterhouses.
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Animal rights dilemmas are hot political topics. From the declining fur industry, to animal testing to British MPs voting that ‘animals cannot feel pain or emotions' – the way we treat animals is under scrutiny by the public and activists alike. Lucent partakes in the debate, tackling the ethics of food.
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The documentary starts off on a light note; images of playing piglets, and mothers nesting and interacting with their young will probably have you exclaiming a soft ‘aww’. However, this happy and mushy mood is quickly crushed as the documentary moves on to its main objective: exposing the pig meat industry in Australia. This shows the extreme difference between the pigs living happily in farm sanctuaries, and the pigs whose sole existence – as defined by humans – is meant for our dinner plates.
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Pigs are astoundingly similar to another, much beloved, animal, a species often considered family by their owners; dogs. Throughout the documentary, this raises the inevitable question: why love one and eat the other?
The theme is powerful, as is the footage, which can remind of the more widely known Earthlings.
This documentary, released in 2005 and narrated by Joaquin Phoenix, has inspired countless debates on our treatment of animals in industries meant to benefit or entertain us. As an exposé, Earthlings famously used gritty and violent footage to convince viewers. Lucent cannot compare when it comes to this usage of traumatic film, being considerably less bloody. Even so, the documentary is not an easy watch, and viewer discretion is ultimately advised.
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For viewers who have never paid thought to how the industry is run, Lucent might be a punch to the gut. The film presents disturbing pictures documenting daily abuses until the moment of slaughter. However, the lack of explicit gore is beneficial, as sensitive souls may otherwise refrain from watching the more violent documentaries, and thereby remain in the dark about the ethical issues surrounding the industry.
Lucent is disturbing on a different level entirely; seeing these usually clean and social creatures reduced to frustrated animals forced to roll around in their own dirt, injuring each other out of grievance and boredom, can be harder than a short – however bloody – moment of death.
The amount of evidence provided in the film is staggering, with horrifying footage from more than 50 different pig farms.
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LUCENT, 2014
PRODUCER: Chris Delford, Aussie Farms
Watch it on AussiePigs.com free of charge
*****
Even so, neither Australia nor any other industrial countries have seen major changes in how animal products are created. While sow stalls were supposed to be completely phased out by 2017, gestation crates in birthing stalls and mating stalls are legal, which means the animals still spend big quantities of time in total confinement. In addition, the documentary shows how the animals are subjected to constant breeding by artificial insemination until their bodies cannot withstand it anymore. The claustrophobic environment is their prison.
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Lucent is picture-based, and the producers let these pictures speak for themselves. Only occasionally does the narrator pop in, giving more context about the issue. In this regard, it is much more objective than one could expect for a documentary produced by an activist organisation. The material is sourced mainly by undercover footage and security camera feeds. Passionate activists documented footage by installing hidden cameras in slaughterhouse gas chambers, which has given valuable insight to just how the animals are turned from pigs to slabs of bacon. This kind of exposition (exploitation? Did you mean maybe?) shows a reality in which animals are treated as commodities and business products, but never regarded as a worthy form of life.
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Lucent uses a story telling technique of repeated exposure. Lingering shots on horrific wounds – pressure sores, damage to reproductive organs and self-inflicted injuries born of desperation – proves that this is not simply a one-off occurrence. Demonstrating the sheer number of injuries, dead and twisted bodies, bugs, rats and faulty equipment, as well as the extent of abuse by employees, show that these are not isolated cases within the industry, but the norm. The careful documentation of what transpires, as well as the systematic approach, makes the pace just right for this kind of documentary. The kind that is meant to hit hard.
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The use of footage is fundamental to how the film tugs on heartstrings. The many shots of pigs’ eyes, peeking out from in between metal bars, always convey one of two expressions. Albeit intelligence is always clearly visible, even behind half-lidded eyes, the most haunting emotions is the defeat and the desperation. In the end, we are taken on a painful journey through the pigs’ lives, from new-born piglet to panicking adult, standing in line for the gas chamber.
The very definition of the word lucent is ‘glowing with light’.
This is fitting, as the film sheds light on a billion-dollar industry and provides evidence many people would rather see buried. What makes Lucent so effective is the way it challenges the notion that such atrocities do not happen in our own well-developed countries. It is easy to discredit documentaries like Earthlings, as it uses footage of abuse from all over the globe. In the Australian environment of Lucent, this is disproven. The film exposes the industry and lays it bare; no longer can people claim ignorance.
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This month, Lucent’s sequel will hit selected theatres. Dominion aims to expose the Australian animal product industry in its entirety. It seems to have taken a page out of Earthling’s book, diving into six different areas about human interaction with animals. Hopefully, it will, just as Lucent, open both hearts and minds of viewers, and inspire change.