Details

Under production
Genre: Documentary
Estimated time(min.): 25:00
Shooting format: SP Beta Cam
Language: English

Director: David Sarkissian
Producer: Ovsanna Hovsepyan
Script: Ovsanna Hovsepyan & David Sarkissian
Script Editing: Samvel Mkrtchyan
Photographer: David Sarkissian
Director Assistant: Argishti Vasakyan
Supported by Coco Hall

* * *

It was February 20, 2004, when I (David) was having a conversation with a girl called Ovsanna (who is now the script writer and the producer of this film). We were talking about animals. She asked. “Do you love animals?” I answered. “Sure I do, I have a cat and dog and they live so friendly”. Ovsanna smiled, kept silent for a while and added. “Do you eat animals?’’

Probably an hour after our conversation I refused to eat meat for the first time in my life. I began to explore literature about vegetarianism. And the more I read and watch videos, the more I realized how abandoned animals were and how much they served for human kind.

SYNOPSIS

I was reading Leo Tolstoy’s novel “First Steps”, where it is described how animals are being cruelly killed in shambles (pigs, hens, cows, sheep etc). I saw all those images before my eyes and realized that I should shoot a film, where I can describe how people supervise and subdue animals.
The film presents animal-animal and animal-human relationships as well as the procedure of life which is in the state of continuous movement. There are stills of birth, death and sex used. Life of wild living animals goes parallel with life of animals that live in cotes, as well as human behavior to predacious animals goes parallel with the behavior that man has to vegetarian animals.
Episodes are going to be shot in Armenia, in different places - wild nature, villages, zoos, shambles, in meat-making, milk-making, bird-making and leather-making farms.
The film describes how animals become production materials during human evolution. They are born and are judged to be victims of human whim. There are animals which are a little bit luckier than others, because some are used as servants, some as food, some as clothes and the rest of them just as hunt goal. People try to make nature the way they want it to be, and they don’t notice how it is in reality.

When I became a vegetarian I realized that not eating meat gives an opportunity not just to clean your body, live longer, have beautiful body, but also it helps to clean your mind. To become a vegetarian, man should reach that state of mind and heart, be able to see animals not just when they are in his plate, but also see them as independent creatures that make life better.
Now a lot of people think that animals don’t have any soul. But many years ago people used to think that women either didn’t have a soul, either. Animals have a great meaning in our life. For example there are dogs without which blind people would hardly live. Also there are dogs that are professional savers. And there are dogs that are killed for their skin.
No wonder, that the first man that called himself a philosopher was Pythagoras and he was a vegetarian. And other art giants like Leonardo Da Vinci were vegetarians; and we must not forget about Hippies Movement after World War II, they say “Love each other, live in peace”, they all were vegetarians and they were spreading vegetarianism.
People don’t usually see how and where animals are being killed and they don’t realize what they eat. I am sure, that this film will help a lot of people to be released from what they don’t realize. There are people that say they don’t eat meat, but they eat frankfurter. They don’t understand, that frankfurter is the same animal, just made in a different way. Most people in the world are really kind and they don’t realize what they do. They just need someone to show them what they are doing. It’s like I was eating meat, and it was enough just a sentence to understand what am I doing.
When we ask someone “What do you eat?”, he answers, “I eat meat”. It means a lot of people look at meat as just a meal. Or a lot of people eat meat only in salads, because they escape the idea they eat animal, they eat meat the way they cannot see it.
And my great desire is to show people, to help them realize that they eat not just meat, but they eat animal, they live by killing or engaging a killer.
When we carefully read the Bible, it says “DON’T KILL”, it doesn’t mention not to kill a human being, it doesn’t say whom NOT to kill. It means don’t kill at all! Even Jesus says, “I don’t want to see other victim after me”.
A documentary film has much more stronger influence, than when you speak about it. Because “It is better to see once, than to hear 10 times”.
I am sure my film will change a lot of lives. I am sure my film will give a positive energy to people, will help them to look more carefully to what do they do, even if it gives very little energy, but never mind.

SUBTITLES USED IN FILM

• We look at them, but we don’t see them
• “Do you love animals”? “Do you eat animals?”
• “If anyone wants to save the planet, all they have to do is just stop eating meat ”. - Sir Paul McCartney
• “People will stop to kill each other when they stop to kill animals ”. – Leonardo Da Vinci
• The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated. – Gandhi
• “You are what you eat” – George Harrison
  

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

Living in an Asian country, it is very difficult to understand that you can stop eating animal. And as I have been eating meat probably for 18 years without realizing my action, I am looking for a way to exculpate the sense of my guilt. And the way I chose was making a film. In my opinion films are one of the best ways to profess feelings; films also give a chance to have straight connection with the action that goes on at that moment.
Through this film I want to show people dependence on animals so much. But they don’t appreciate that.
After becoming a vegetarian, I wanted to relate with animals more. I decided to go and see myself how animals are being cruelly killed. That was awful. I shot a part, where a sheep was being sacrificed. In Armenia, there is immolation tradition. When something bad is happening, people kill an animal to say «Thank you, Lord». One after another, 3 months-old sheep were being killed. All I saw that day opened my eyes a lot and I realized that all the animals that became meat stock for human beings are in the same state.
After that day a great energy stock was evoked inside me and that was about to shoot a film which will show how people use animals cruelly. It has been 3 years I have been thinking about this subject; I have been writing down all newborn ideas and trying to make a film script. Now I hope I have reached the purpose, because I am ready to realize all the energy and emotions I had through these 3 years.
The film doesn’t have any commercial purpose. My aim is not to earn money by this film, but to present to the world a completely new version of looking at things. Concerning the money that the film may bring, I want to use it to shoot new films dedicated to animal protection.
David Sarkissian

PRODUCER’S STATEMENT

Every cell in the Earth means something and it has something to do. All the creatures in the world are perfect except a creature called human being. Animals are what they are and they have no need to be changed. But even human beings have a stage in life when they are perfect. That stage is childhood. I am looking at children and I see a great love and kindness in their eyes. They are not able to kill or harm.
A two-years old child was walking with her mother. Suddenly a little street dog appeared and that child wanted to fondle, to play with that dog. But her mother was dragging along child’s hand and saying “Hey, don’t touch, that dog will harm you”. ..
A four-years old girl was looking how her mother was killing a hen and flaying it. There were tears in her eyes and she told she wouldn’t eat the meat of that poor hen. The mother laughed at her and explained that “God Father” made animals to be eaten by people…
I want this film to open our eyes and make people return to their childhood, remember who they really were until adults locked their kind and loving hearts.
~Ovsanna Hovsepyan

AIMS

• To show people that animals are not just for eating, milking, clipping, hunting, but they are for living their life and make life better.
• To uncover animals nature.
• To help people to realize that not the animals depend on us but we depend on them.
• To show that every creature has a mission to do in nature.
• To present the film to international auditory without any age limit. To put the film in international circulation