“I’m Vegan” Documentary Videos Are Here!
As many know, versatile activist Eric Prescott has been working on a creative documentary project for a while — and I am so excited to report that the finished products are starting to surface! The filming took Eric and a crew on the road for 2 months in the spring of 2009, as they traversed the United States and even hopped up into Canada, interviewing a range of vegans for a series that the I’m Vegan site itself explains this way:
I’m Vegan is a series of short documentary profiles that will feature vegans from all walks of life. The project is being produced to address preconceptions about vegans and veganism. The profiles–or “vignettes”–will be distributed for free over the web so that people can share the videos with family, friends, and visitors to their own sites.
Eric has had a lot on his (vegan) plate since the filming finished, including opening the popular Peace o’ Pie vegan pizza place in Boston this past year and running the Boston Vegan Association too, but tonight, much to my glee and others’, Eric has been busy uploading the first finished profiles. They look and sound fantastic, and I’ve no doubt that the various interviewees are going to inspire people. There are four profiles up as I write this, for Risa, Minku, John, and Regina, and I think one more is in the process of being uploaded. And one of the cool things about these profiles is, as the description notes, the way they show that vegans don’t all look the same and that people can come from quite different backgrounds or communities, or be at different places in their lives, and yet still come to the same compassionate, consistent conclusions about how they want to live with respect to our fellow animals.
For more and to start watching and sharing the videos, you can go straight to the home of I’m Vegan or to the YouTube channel, and to keep getting updates as additional profiles are added in the future, you can “like” the project on Facebook [edit: or subscribe via RSS, Twitter, and/or e-mail on the main site, of course]. Below are two of the profiles, Risa’s and John’s, but be sure to visit and return to the links provided above for other available and on-the-way profiles (in Minku’s profile, by the way, the cut to his “average dude” breakfast moment on the counter/sink in his kitchen cracks me up). [Edit, 8/11/10: a fifth profile, Julia, and an outtake from Risa's interview now have been added.]
Stephanie Ernst
Marji
Kelly G.
Deb
Mary Martin
I smiled at that kitchen-counter eating-oatmeal moment, too, Stephanie. You’re right, they’re each so different background-wise yet so the same ethics-wise. Each interviewee is so genuine and likeable. It’s true that telling one’s own story and explaining one’s reasoning in a quiet way is more appealing than in-your-face proselytizing, though I’ve done some of each. The former way, I’ve concluded, wins more respect and doesn’t raise hackles. Kudos to Eric.
I <3 this project so much. I think they did an incredible job picking the first five to go up too – the array of diversity is impressive and right off the bat they're accomplishing the goal of the project; they're showing people that vegans are average people from a wide variety of backgrounds. Plus Eric is just an awesome guy, as are Spencer and Matt. Kudos for a job well done, I'm so excited to see the final result!
Now, *cough* put the one with me and Alex up. I wanna be on TV (kinda)!
I was so happy to see Risa! She’s awesome. It’s great she’s representing our lovely city.
This is fabulous! Wonderful to see this project has come to fruit! :)
Love Risa’s outtake about the KFC chicken’s head found in the nuggets. The point being that it was the “wrong” body part. This whole exposure to real (vegan) people with genuine good reasoning to choose this journey ought to be quite an eye opener for those who are curious.
Well worth the wait! Eric should be very proud! :)
Thanks, all. Glad everyone is finding the profiles worthwhile so far. Please remember a couple of things:
1) This project isn’t about me (nor is it about my crew). I’m not taking any pride in this as some sort of achievement. I’m just trying to do the best I can with what I have and hoping that it will have some impact on those who see these profiles.
2) This project was designed from the get-go to share with as many people as possible, to lower the barriers to veganism, so please, please, please: share, share, share! Share via email, burn them to DVD, share them with students, post on your blogs, share on your Facebook walls, MySpace, Twitter, wherever!
Remember that, as gratifying as it is to see vegans responding to these episodes, what’s important is that we reach non-vegans and get them to consider or re-consider veganism. Hopefully there’ll be a profile here that will reach through to someone and plant a seed, but it can’t do that unless these are literally everywhere.
Thanks for supporting this effort, and don’t forget to direct people to vegandocumentary.com!
Eric