When I think of people I know who are making an impact on our world, I'm lucky to be able to name more than one. I know quite a few amazing people who are doing their own good things to make this world a better place and one of those people is my friend, Jo-Anne McArthur. Each and every day, Jo-Anne uses her talents, drive, determination, and passion to make her own special mark on humanity.
Jo-Anne is someone who has chosen a cause to live her life for and is doing it in huge ways. Her cause is to show the world, through her camera lens, the plight of animals who suffer silently each day as we go about our busy lives. What Jo-Anne is doing is not for fame or fortune—Jo-Anne wants to change the world.
“The connection that I have to animals while I’m photographing them is one of empathy. There is a huge mistreatment and inequality between human and non-human animals, and that’s always in the forefront of my mind.” – Jo-Anne McArthur
Jo-Anne is an award winning photojournalist, a renowned activist, an author, and founder of We Animals, a project which documents, through photography, animals in the human environment.
Liz Marshall, director of The Ghosts in Our Machine chose to document Jo-Anne over a one-year period as she travelled across the world photographing and documenting the stories of the “the ghosts”(the animals) and the industries they are part of. The documentary also covers the relationship between humans and animals.
“The Ghosts In Our Machine illuminates the lives of individual animals living within and rescued from the machine of our modern world. Through the heart and photographic lens of acclaimed animal photographer Jo-Anne McArthur, we become intimately familiar with a cast of non-human animals. The film follows McArthur over the course of a year as she photographs several animal stories in parts of Canada, the U.S. and in Europe. Each story and photograph is a window into global animal industries: Research; Food; Fashion and Entertainment. The question is posed: Are non-human animals property to be owned and used, or are they sentient beings deserving of rights?”
See the trailer here:
I've already written about films that have made a huge impact on me and the way I think—once I see this documentary, I am sure it will be added to that list.
The Ghosts in Our Machine is currently screening in cities across Canada, click for a list of upcoming dates. To help release this documentary in US theatres, you can donate to the Ghosts in Our Machine Indiegogo Campaign.
Image Credits: The Ghosts in Our Machine
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