Dominion

The film makes use of emerging technologies, such as aerial drones, to capture new perspectives and examine the wider context of animal exploitation upon our landscape and within our society. Dominion was announced in October 2015 with a crowdfunding campaign which raised over $19000, and in December 2015 received a grant from animal protection institute Voiceless . A further crowdfunding campaign finished in January 2018. The Bible mentions "dominion" over animals, and many Christians believe that humankind was given dominion over animals by god. Is that where the title comes from? "Dominion" to me is the idea of one group or entity exercising control, power or authority over another, under the belief that they have the right to do so. Often this belief seems to stem from the perception of self-superiority and that "might equals right". Through this film I challenge both the notion that animals are inferior, and that we as humans have the right to use and treat them as we please for our own ends – and I briefly examine how this superiority complex has and continues to complement some of humanity's darkest ideologies, asking viewers to consider the similarities between racism, sexism and speciesism. Is there any relationship between your film and Matthew Scully's book Dominion ? At the time of deciding on the name for this film, I wasn't aware of Matthew Scully's book – though I've recently ordered a copy. No doubt there'll be some overlap in the messaging and topics covered, but beyond that there's no relationship between our projects. Industries that profit from the exploitation and abuse of animals hide behind a wall of secrecy – they know that if consumers were to see for themselves what actually occurs in the production of meat, dairy, eggs, leather, etc, they'd stop being consumers and those industries would quickly cease to exist. The film Earthlings was a huge inspiration to me and I've seen the enormous effect it's had around the world – but too often I hear the excuse that it "doesn't happen in Australia" or that its footage is now too old. So I wanted to make something new, something to hit back at that myth of Australia being "kind" to the animals it so brutally uses and disposes of, while also making it clear that these practices and attitudes are standard across the globe and represent a much larger problem. What are the challenges and benefits of using high-tech drone and undercover footage in making a film? Drones offer a whole new perspective of these industries – for the first time we're able to truly appreciate their terrifying scale and the way in which the traditional "farm" has been replaced by these massive identical rows of factories. We can cut from focusing on an individual animal with his or her own personality, to a huge wide shot of a feedlot or saleyard where thousands of these individuals are packed together as mere units of production, their individual identities lost or indistinguishable. They can be incredibly stressful to fly though – especially when you have to send them 5km out from the shore and they make it back with only a couple percentage remaining in the battery, or when for whatever reason they decide to land near the parking lot of a slaughterhouse. Undercover footage, and footage from covert cameras placed inside slaughterhouses or farms, allow us to see what the workers get up to when they think they're safe from scrutiny... from mocking and disrespect, to kicking, beating or throwing the animals around. This comes at great personal risk to the people getting the footage though, and unfortunately tends to be a much lower quality image than that from the drone or handheld cameras. Your first film Lucent is about the underbelly of pig farming in Australia. How does Dominion connect to Lucent ? Dominion will begin with an overview of pig farming – essentially a compressed version of Lucent but with newer and much better/clearer footage. For example, since Lucent 's relea