Telegraph review of Animal Liberation Front film

[Guest guest]

The Telegraph(owned by the Anandabazar Patrika Group of Kolkata that is the

Indian partner of Star, Sky and Fox News and Penguin publishers) has been

able to do what the Asia for Animals conference in Madras could not :

provide a slot for 'BEHIND THE MASK', the film about the activities of the

Animal Liberation Front. Many think that Animal Liberation Front activists

are nightriders, psychopaths, vandals, fanatics and terrorists. If they

really be so, I am so glad that the Telegraph is the first mainstream

newspaper(with an average daily circulation of about 400,000) in India to

give them a voice. Thank you Telegraph, for carrying this review in the best

spirit of journalism.

 

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070119/asp/etc/story_7274936.asp

DVD/VCD reviews

It is not often that a film is made to give 'terrorists' a voice,

especially when the people concerned are categorised as the number one

domestic terrorist threat in the US by the FBI. *Behind The Mask, *a film

about animal liberationists who break the law to free animals from

laboratories, provides previously unseen footage on this much debated topic.

No doubt, it has stirred controversy with accusations of glamourising

vandalism.

Of late, animal rights activists have taken to illegal and violent actions

to rescue animals from laboratories. However, such efforts have been widely

condemned by the public and the mainstream media in the West.

Shannon Keith (writer-director), an American animal rights lawyer, made this

film in an endeavour to present the animal rights activists' side of the

story. According to Keith, change only happens in society when laws are

broken. The film shows footage of an animal rights activist named Jill

Phipps being killed during a protest regarding transportation of live

animals. " They call us terrorists but the reality is that over the years

four animal rights activists have been killed during protests, " notes Jill's

mother, Nancy Phipps, in the film.

Keith Mann, Rod Coronado, Ingrid Newkirk, Melanie Arnold, Jerry Vlasak and

Kevin Jonas have all been imprisoned for indulging in illegal activities and

all of them present their opinions in the film. They are well-known names in

the animal rights movement who believe in direct action to save animals from

torture.

Footage of animal rights activists setting ablaze a slaughterhouse sets one

thinking if ends justify the means. Arsonist Melanie Arnold says, " If I had

an opportunity, I would do it again since economic damage to animal abusers

is justifiable. " The film draws parallels between violence in the animal

rights movement and violence in the human rights movement. There is great

music synchronised with action footage and quotes from John F. Kennedy and

Martin Luther King Junior have been utilised effectively.

Regardless of what one thinks about the tactics of the Animal Liberation

Front, the film is an extraordinary one that is well worth watching. The

film is available by order from *www.uncagedfilms.com*

**

 

 

 

 

*The Telegraph* is a Kolkata <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolkata> based

broadsheet newspaper in English<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language>.

It is owned by the Anandabazar Patrika Limited (an enterprise of Ananda

Publishers <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ananda_Publishers>). It has

published continuously since 7 July <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_7>

1982 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982> and created history by being the

only broadsheet newspaper in post independent India to increase its market

share by taking away readership from the established market leader ( The

Statesman <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Statesman>). In its short life

span of 23 years, it has become the largest circulated English daily in the

eastern region published from Calcutta. It is considered by the Audit Bureau

of Circulations <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audit_Bureau_of_Circulations>,

India , to be the fastest growing daily (in terms of circulation) in eastern

India <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India>.

 

The Telegraph is also published from

Guwahati<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guwahati>(to cater to the entire

northeast), Siliguri (for North

Bengal <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Bengal> and

Sikkim<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikkim>),

Jamshedpur <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamshedpur>, and

Ranchi<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranchi>(for

Jharkhand <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jharkhand>). The Telegraph today

offers, in addition to its extensive national, international, and business

news a wide variety of reading material on special interests. Following is a

list of its daily supplements:

 

- Monday : KnowHow — An eight page colour tabloid on science.

- Tuesday : The Telegraph Jobs, a tabloid on jobs available, on how to

approach interviews with interviews on those succeeded and those who take

interviews.

- Wednesday : Telekids — an exciting eight page colour tabloid for

children.

- Thursday : CareerGraph — a special eight page colour guide for

students and graduates on the lookout for jobs and career opportunities.

- Friday : etc — an eight page colour tabloid covering entertainment,

television and cinema.

- Saturday : Weekend — four pages of entertaining weekend reading in

colour.

- Sunday : Graphiti — A 32-page colour magazine.In addition there is a

four-page section called Look and four pages of The Telegraph Classifieds in

colour.

 

The internet edition is a part of the ongoing exercise of trying to reach

more people interested in India and specifically the eastern part of the

country.The average daily circulation of the Telegraph is 400,000 copies.