The chilling documentary feature “The Animal People,” from directors Casey Suchan (“Rock The Bells”) and Denis Henry Hennelly (“Goodbye World,” “Bold Native”) follows the harrowing journey of six young American animal rights activists prosecuted as terrorists by the United States Government for their involvement in a protest campaign. The film had its world premiere at the Austin Film Festival last month and will make its Los Angeles bow at the Santa Monica International Film Festival on November 30.
“The Animal People” has been acquired by independent film distributor Virgil Films & Entertainment (Oscar®-nominated “Restrepo,” “Forks Over Knives,”) and will be released across all digital platforms around the globe beginning December 10, 2019.
Executive Produced by three-time Academy Award®-nominated actor Joaquin Phoenix (“Joker,”) “The Animal People” is produced by Mikko Alanne (“The Long Road Home,” “The 33”) and his Finngate Pictures producing partner Ari Solomon, Jorja Fox (“CSI,” “Memento”), Sasha Perry (“Running for Good,”) as well as co-director Suchan. Perry co-edited the film with Brian Palmer (“Gleason”).
“The Animal People” explores the controversial Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) campaign, whose actions made worldwide headlines as activists seeking to close the world’s largest animal testing laboratory, Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), began targeting any company that did business with the lab. Immensely successful but equally controversial for its radical tactics, SHAC after 9/11 became the focus of one of the largest domestic FBI investigations in history. Ultimately, six of the campaign’s organizers were indicted by the Federal Government and anti-terrorism laws were pushed through Congress, specifically tailored to target their activities.
With never-before-seen footage from inside both the campaign and the U.S. Government’s investigation and featuring expansive interviews with the six defendants spanning more than a decade, the film provides an unprecedented journey inside an animal rights campaign that sparked both controversy and admiration around the world.
“This film is about much more than just this case,” said Executive Producer Joaquin Phoenix, who joined the project during post-production, “It’s about fundamental questions concerning free speech, social change, and corporate power that have never been more urgently relevant in our world.”
“Virgil Films is very proud to be releasing this astounding film that has been a labor of love for its filmmakers for so many years. “The Animal People” is shattering and thought-provoking, and among the most important documentaries we are releasing this year,” States Joseph Amodei, President of Virgil Films & Entertainment.
“The Animal People” began its life from a photograph that Producer Mikko Alanne saw in a news magazine of the six young defendants outside a New Jersey courthouse. He and his producing partner Ari Solomon instantly felt the story had to be told, and approached documentarians Casey Suchan and Denis Henry Hennelly about helming a feature film on the case; the two had already explored the subject of breaking the law for animals in their dramatic feature film “Bold Native.” Suchan and Hennelly were immediately drawn to the project. They proposed an ambitious focus: to meticulously reexamine the government’s years-long effort to prosecute the activists and the disquieting First Amendment questions the case raised, but equally importantly, to interview the six activists at length post-prison to explore the impact of the convictions in their lives. As Suchan, Hennelly and Producer-Editor Sasha Perry began pouring through the vast amounts of material from the multi-year government investigation and trial, it was clear the project would take several years to complete. Actress and activist Jorja Fox, an acclaimed documentary producer, also joined the project. Intimate, harrowing, shocking but ultimately inspiring, “The Animal People” is an unforgettable chronicle of a campaign that almost brought a multinational corporation to its knees, and the price its victories cost.