How to gain extremely clear insight into the critical issue of preserving our planet in a very dark room? This is the challenge taken up by Cyril Dion with his new film Animal, supported by Equestrio Foundation. Following the success of Demain on the climate change crisis, he puts the limelight this time on the mass extinction of wild species. Let’s tell you all about it (or almost!) …
Make the invisible visible
Spreading the word
For Equestrio Foundation, taking action means providing financial support to projects that contribute to animal protection and environmental preservation. It’s true. But it’s also about refusing to stay silent and making sure we all open our eyes. By giving voice to those living beings that are deprived of speech. By using the power of images to give substance to realities that are somewhat too distant to be felt. By telling stories about nature, animals and humans, to actually help change the course of events.
Time for the big screen
So what better way to raise awareness about the urgent need to protect wildlife than through a film? When the film project Animal from environmental activist Cyril Dion took shape, helping to finance it became an obvious choice[1]. After the photo and video documentaries… time for the big screen!
Animal : the quest for harmony in the “orchestra of life”
An encounter between living beings
Animal tells us about the ongoing extinction of animals and about a biodiversity on the verge of depletion.
It is the story of a crisis that has already eliminated nearly 50% of wild life in the last fifty years and that is leading us to a sixth mass extinction of species[2]. Animals are disappearing for five main reasons: the impact of climate change, the spread of disease (especially due to increased international trade), pollution, overexploitation of resources and the destruction of their natural habitats.
Animal is also about “Us”, human beings.
It explains our share of responsibility in this slaughter. But it also highlights the role we have, as living beings among other living beings, to stop this disaster in order to leave a viable world to future generations. This capacity for action is embodied by Bella and Vipulan, two teenagers committed to the issues of climate change and animal wellbeing. Confronted with the limits of their activism, they decide to embark on a journey around the world to get to the root of the problem: our connection to the living world.
A quest for meaning
In this quest, they cross paths with many key players engaged in the fight against the extinction of wild species and in the promotion of a world based on the respect of all living beings, whatever their forms. Farmers, biologists, lobbyists, volunteers, economists…and even the President of Costa Rica! Through these encounters, they draw an essential lesson: human beings have wrongly believed that they can live apart from nature, but they are nature. By saving other species, we will also save ourselves.
A cry for hope
From these discussions, some solutions arise on how to live differently on our planet – by cohabiting more respectfully with other forms of life, and even better, by enriching them (no spoilers here!). In this film, the cries of alarm blend in with a veritable cry of hope and optimism. The ambition of Animal is clearly to trigger a fundamental change in our outlook on the world and to gear us towards other possible paths than the one we have been following blindly for too long.
We are “Animal”!
This film resonates deeply with our entire approach at Equestrio Foundation, from its vocation of raising – or rather awakening – consciousness, to its artistic stance allowing for a true immersion in contact with nature and animals.
Embracing optimism and action
For us, these 90 minutes of film are also a gripping summary of all the causes we support, ranging from the preservation of wildlife to a respectful cohabitation between all living beings, to the cleaning of the oceans and animal well-being. And above all, it brings to life the commitment, expertise, generosity, and enthusiasm of all the project leaders we have met and who are making things happen.
A real bittersweet emotion-packed film which, beyond providing a lucid warning of the urgency of the situation, opens the way to other possible scenarios and reminds us that it is now time to act for the future.
[1] Our financing amounts to 10 000 euros.
[2] ANIMAL press release, Cannes 2021.
