This past year was remarkable in terms of what we have learned about the cognitive, emotional and moral lives of nonhuman animals. A new and outstanding book called We Animals by award-winning photojournalist
and activist Jo-Anne McArthur whose work also is featured in the wonderful documentary The Ghosts in Our Machine and a recent TEDTalk entitled "If We Could Talk To the Animals" by biologist Denise Herzing about the clearly smart and emotional dolphins she and her team study and her talk made me think of an incredible number of larger themes and "big" questions centering on the fascinating lives of the other animals with whom we share our magnificent planet. By paying attention to who other animals are we learn lessons about ourselves.
http://tinyurl.com/o2shpkw
Many documentaries steeped in social or political issues get very insistent and often very noisy in expressing a point of view. Michael Moore is of course the model for effective, engaging and defiantly in-your-face activism in this arena. In contrast, "The Ghosts in Our Machine," a heartfelt meditation on animal rights, comes at you as a whisper. It depends on the persuasive powers of creatures great and small — in their natural habitat or in cages — to argue that we stop using them for food, clothing, research and entertainment. That the cages be tossed away.
http://tinyurl.com/kwwqxsq
