Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard
Link copied to clipboard

Creator of 'Earthlings' looks at bigger picture in 'Unity'

In his new documentary, Unity (which opens August 12 nationwide), Shaun Monson looks through a compassionate lens to show how our respect for animals and for each other are part of a whole, part of a positive system of relationships that we need to adopt - and soon.

Vegans often hear that we should be paying attention to solving the problems of human society before worrying about the problems of animals. I've shown that this is specious (as well as speciesist) given that the institutions humans have set up to exploit animals also invariably harm humans. But there's also a notion among vegans that mere avoidance of animal products should be only the start of more extensive good works.

In his new documentary, Unity (which opens August 12 nationwide), Shaun Monson paves some of that path, looking through a compassionate lens to show how our respect for animals and for each other are part of a whole, part of a positive system of relationships that we need to adopt - and soon.

Monson's previous documentary, Earthlings, is already legendary for presenting the issue of animal exploitation so clearly and powerfully that it has caused people to go vegan after the credits roll (I know people for whom this has happened), and has earned the moniker "the vegan-maker." Now Monson is using that cinematic method to treat a more mainstream issue. In a phone interview, he explained:

All of the above - if you think about it, the press is always interested in names, but they're also exceptional narrators. Particularly actors - they're very good with reading dialogue. In fact I would've loved to have had a policeman or a janitor or a schoolteacher deliver those words, but actors know how to deliver that stuff the best and so I wanted actors. Even in Earthlings I worked with Joaquin Phoenix who was a vegan and an animal advocate, so that was pretty easy. This one was a little different - I didn't want it to be just animal advocates or humanitarians... [one film occurred with the other] and the idea was to see if they fit together in pieces as part of a whole.

So Earthlings and Unity, focusing on strife between humans and animals, and between humans and humans, respectively, will be part of a trilogy of which the third part looks at humans and nature, in an ever-expanding sense of the whole. But the vegan idea still pervades the content as there's a parallel between our human "tribalism" that almost instinctively divides our family-and-friend group from other, more questionable humans, and the popular mantra "that's what separates us from the animals." As Monson put it:

You can look at the history and see an attitude of empathy and compassion that is cultivated for the in-group, toward the family, the village, the nation, your favorite sports team, what have you, and in the same breath, while we're cultivating that empathy and love for the in-group, we're also cultivating an attitude of aggression toward the out-group, the other, and this is throughout the history of humanity. Animals aren't totally grouped outside of our group because we have many that live in our homes with us that families are fond of and consider family members, but in the movie we call it "separation based on form" because we show empathy and compassion for some forms such as the dog, the cat, the whale, the dolphin or the harp seal, and in the same breath show an attitude of aggression toward other forms which might be the cow, the chicken and the pig. That's separation based on form, which I feel is mirrored in human society as well.

So will Unity turn out to be the "brotherly-love-maker"? I asked Monson if there was an analogy to going vegan that he was hoping to engender in viewers of this movie.

I don't know that I have something that I want the viewer to do, because it should come from within - each person is different. But I do hope that we've shined a light on this  ongoing contrast that seems to perpetuate itself continually in humanity, not just in our politics or our national conflicts but you even see it in our music, in our sports, in all of our stuff. In every film you can probably think of including Disney films you will see the "princess" or the "prince" and the "evil king" or "queen" are driving every story. The duality storyline is perpetually put forth, as if [humans] have one story that we know and it's presented the same every time. It's what we're being fed by constantly, so a new idea that's outside of that might seem sort of alien, or blunt, or radical, more philosophical, more spiritual... So yeah, they may come up with some new titles for what we have. I'm anxious to hear what they come up with.

You can check out the trailer here. Unity shows at these Philly-area theaters on Wednesday, August 12:

UA Riverview Plaza Stadium, Philadelphia
1400 South Christopher Columbus Blvd

AMC Neshaminy 24, Bensalem
660 Neshaminy Mall

AMC Plymouth Meeting Mall, Plymouth Meeting
494 W Germantown Pike

UA King of Prussia 16, King of Prussia
300 Goddard Blvd