
A Cow at My Table
Overview
A Cow at My Table explores Western attitudes towards farm animals and meat, and the intense battle between animal advocates and the meat industry to influence the consumer's mind. Five years in production took Director Jennifer Abbott across Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand to meet with the leaders of the animal rights movement, animal welfare advocates as well as spokespeople from livestock industries. A Cow at My Table inter-cuts these diverse perspectives with archival films, images from modern-day agribusiness and footage of farm animals shot from uncharacteristic vantage points.
Top Cast
Susan Kitchen
Herself - Alberta Foundation for Animal Care
Susan Schafers
Herself - Holborn Poultry Farms
Joy Ripley
Herself - Alberta Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Ian Duncan
Himself - Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare
Jeannette Armstrong
Herself - Activist, Writer
Karen Davis
Herself - United Poultry Concerns

Vandana Shiva
Herself

Carol J. Adams
Herself - Author of The Sexual Politics of Meat
Tom Regan
Himself - Philosopher, Activist

Howard Lyman
Himself - Author of Mad Cowboy

Peter Singer
Himself - Philosopher, Activist
Key Film Crew
Production Stats
You May Also Like

"In continuo" uses slaughterhouse imagery to present the warlike nature of man, first depicting the cleaning and mechanical preparations for the slaughterhouse and then the killing, however, the animal slaughter itself isn’t shown.
In continuo

On the 22nd of May 2021, around 100 Animal Rebels shut-down all four McDonald's distribution centers across the UK. Shutting down their factories for a total of 96 hours and disrupting over 1300 of McDonald's restaurants across the country.
You Have Four Years

An ex gang member's love for pigs spurs him on a life-risking mission to uncover the truth behind 'bacon'. Director and Activist Joey Carbstrong goes undercover with fellow activists to infiltrate and expose the deeply ingrained corruption and heartbreaking abuse that lies at the heart of the UK’s ‘pork industry’.
Pignorant

An intimate portrayal of the everyday lives of Carthusian monks of the Grande Chartreuse, high in the French Alps (Chartreuse Mountains). The idea for the film was proposed to the monks in 1984, but the Carthusians said they wanted time to think about it. The Carthusians finally contacted Gröning 16 years later to say they were now willing to permit Gröning to shoot the movie, if he was still interested.
Into Great Silence

The film describes the microcosmos of the small village Wacken and shows the clash of the cultures, before and during the biggest heavy metal festival in Europe.
Full Metal Village

Filmmakers Robert Kenner and Melissa Robledo reunite with investigative authors Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser to take a fresh look at our efficient yet vulnerable food system.
Food, Inc. 2

An intimate reflection on animal treatment, following ethical pig farmer, Bob Comis, as he contemplates his transition out of raising animals for slaughter.
The Last Pig

An elderly farmer lives out his final days with his wife and a loyal ox in the Korean countryside.
Old Partner

Behind The Jugular is a short animated documentary, featuring an ex-abattoir worker describing his experiences within the slaughterhouse. The film gives a raw account of the restricted and often ignored industry, intended to prompt the audience to consider, and reconsider, their ethical beliefs and values, and how they implement these morals in life.
Behind The Jugular

Exposing the dark underbelly of modern animal agriculture through drones, hidden & handheld cameras, the feature-length film explores the morality and validity of our dominion over the animal kingdom.
Dominion

Directors Hetherington and Junger spend a year with the 2nd Battalion of the United States Army located in one of Afghanistan's most dangerous valleys. The documentary provides insight and empathy on how to win the battle through hard work, deadly gunfights and mutual friendships while the unit must push back the Taliban.
Restrepo

ICE conducted the largest immigration raids in US history at slaughterhouses in 2019, arresting and deporting undocumented workers. Despite the danger to herself and her family, former slaughterhouse worker Susana returns to the scene at night to care for animals on their way to the kill floor.
Susana

Is our food bought at the price of famine in the developing world? Is agribusiness more interested in producing profits than producing food? This PBS independent documentary investigates U.S. and European agribusiness in the Third World. Filmed on five continents, it takes a close look at agribusiness, which is turning the world's food supply into a global supermarket, buying food at the lowest prices-regardless of small farmers and local populations-and selling it at the highest price and the greatest profit whenever possible.
Hungry for Profit
Drama, from the Greek, to do, act, or perform. A composition in which a story is related by means of dialogue and action and is represented with accompanying gesture, costume and scenery, as in real life, a play. The simplest story; a cow in a field, a day passes, articulated by a sequence of simple actions. Another day passes and the actions only vary with the chance events that make one day different from any other. Between the days three traditional songs about work, love and death are sung. These are stories too, but of generalisation, metaphor and myth, whereas the cow's drama follows only the surface pattern of events, the specific.




