A touching, thought-provoking, at times hilarious look at the vegan movement, seen from the perspective of this actor filmmaker duo
Actor and Born Free Foundation patron Dan Richardson (Fyre Rises, Retribution, Disney’s The Lodge) and director Giles Alderson (The Dare, Wolves Of War, The Stranger In Our Bed) introduce Food For Thought, a feature-length documentary exploring the recent rapid growth of the vegan movement globally.
Featuring Philip Lymbery (Compassion in World Farming), Mate Rimac (Rimac Auto), Ethan Brown (Beyond Meat) Katie Cleary (World Animal News), Tanya O’Callaghan (Musician), Derrick Green (Lead singer Sepultura), Jim Chapman (content creator), Harry Jarvis (High Strung), Antonia Whillans (I Am Rage).
Richardson and Alderson have spent the last few years filming as they travel with work, discovering the driving forces behind the global vegan phenomenon, meeting pioneers who share their stories of plant-based living, and learning about the effect the vegan movement is having on humans, animals and the planet alike.
The documentary includes some fascinating, insightful and varied interviews with animal rights activists, philanthropists, athletes, plant-based food developers, podcasters, rock stars and more, peppered throughout with an unexpected comedic element from our protagonists.
It also follows the progress of an eclectic group of volunteers as they undertake their first 30 days on a plant-based diet, documenting their experience through highly relatable video diaries.
On the documentary, co-director -producer, Dan Richardson said, “Among our top priorities was to create something unique in the genre. Making it relatable to a wide audience was paramount and it really feels like we’ve hit the jackpot in that regard thanks to our amazing vegan participants“.
“Ours was always intended to be a feel-good film. There’s absolutely a place for everything, all the way from ‘Earthlings and the horrific reality it exposes in gory detail, through to Simon Amstell’s’ Carnage’ with it’s fictional comedy/horror approach, as well as everything in between. But we were determined from day one that, while we hope to take the audience on a journey on which they’ll find themselves both laughing and crying, ‘Food For Thought’ would ultimately be a positive and uplifting film and one which would leave people feeling understood, included and hopeful”.
The documentary’s fellow co-director -producer, Giles Alderson, who has previously made the documentaries ‘World of Darkness’ and Prime’s ‘All Town Aren’t We’, says, “I’m very excited that the documentary is now complete and will be available for people to watch”
“It is an incredible journey and if we can make a few people eat less meat because of it then I will be overjoyed. It was a really emotional project to be a part of”.
“Everyone we spoke to was absolutely brilliant sharing their stories, and it’s great we were able to get to know them as people a bit better and for their personalities to shine through”.
“It was also great to show some of the companies behind the movement, and the people around the world wanting to make a change in a positive light. I’m so excited to see if we can help to change people’s perspectives of both the animal activists and also the world as a whole”.
The Food For Thought world premiere, taking place at London’s prestigious Royal Geographical Society, will take place on Friday 24th January and is to be hosted by Peter Egan (After Life, Downton Abbey). The event will see a gathering of many well-known faces from the world of animal welfare and conservation as well as film and television.