Movie review: The Witness

At a recent Indianapolis Veggie Meetup, we watched a documentary we had not heard of before, Tribe of Heart’s The Witness. It’s a film that discusses one man’s dramatic transformation from an omnivore uninterested and unfamiliar with animals to vegan and animal activist. Eddie Lama grew up in a rough neighborhood. A construction contractor, he’s not the first guy you’d think of as a crusader for compassion for animals, but when cat-sitting for a pretty girl after having nothing to do with animals, suddenly the light went on, and within months, he had a cat of his own, which prompted him to quit smoking, give up meat, open his own animal sanctuary, and actively spread the message of the cruelty behind the fur industry.

This film is relatively short, around 45 minutes, and it can be difficult to watch at times as he uses videos of the fur industry’s practices in raising, trapping, and killing animals. But it’s inspiring in how quickly he made the connection and how powerful a transformation it was.

The movie has won multiple awards and been shown at dozens of film festivals.

Watch the trailer below:

And you can watch the entire movie at Tribe of Heart’s website:

http://www.tribeofheart.org/sr/sr_witscreeningroom_english.htm.

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