MOOO-VE OVER MATRIX: ONLINE SPOOF THE MEATRIX SHATTERS RECORDS IN FIRST YEAR
"…it beats the original hands down. Watch, Wachowski brothers, and learn."
– Sunday Star-Times (New Zealand)
[New York, NY] – Moopheus, the bovine parody of Laurence Fishburne’s character in the "Matrix" trilogy, celebrated his first birthday today, just in time for the release of The Matrix box-set. In the last year, 6 million people have seen Moopheus in the humorous Flash animation film The Meatrix (www.TheMeatrix.com), the most popular internet advocacy film in history. The 4-minute spoof also stars Leo, a young pig who believes he lives on a pleasant family farm…until he is approached by the trenchcoat-clad cow Moopheus, who reveals the ugly truth about how livestock are raised on factory farms.
At the end of the film, viewers are directed to action pages to learn more about how to stop factory farming and support sustainable family farmers in their communities. International action pages have been created for viewers in Canada, Australia, Poland and the United Kingdom.
"We use humor to spark interest in the serious crisis facing our food system," said Alice Slater, President of GRACE, a New York-based environmental organization that helped produce the film. "At first, people laugh. But then they start to think seriously about how their food is produced. We’ve had people all over the world tell us that they have changed their eating habits after seeing this film," she said.
Last month, the film won the award for Best Documentary Short at the Fourteenth Annual Environmental Media Association Awards (EMAs) in Los Angeles. It also has received awards from the Annecy International Animal Film Festival, The Gynwood Foundation, and Media Rights’ Media That Matters Film Festival.
"The message of The Meatrix is that we don’t have to eat what large food corporations tell us to eat" said Diane Hatz, one of the film’s executive producers and Director of Marketing and Special Projects at GRACE. "We have choices, such as the Eat Well Guide. By typing in your zip code at www.EatWellGuide.org, consumers can find over 5,000 sources of meat, dairy and eggs produced by sustainable family farmers," she said.
Since its debut, The Meatrix has appeared on several television shows, including PBS’s Now with Bill Moyers and CNN’s Headline News. It has received critical acclaim from newspapers like USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, and The Guardian (London).
"A year later and we are still getting almost 100,000 new viewers every month," said Hatz. "The humor of The Meatrix crosses age, gender and class boundaries. I mean, who can resist a cow in sunglasses?"
In early 2003, Free Range Graphics (www.freerangestudios.com) invited nonprofit groups around the country to submit proposals for a grant to create a flash-animation advocacy film. After reviewing 50 proposals, Free Range Graphics awarded its first-ever Free Range Flash Activism Grant to GRACE. Louis Fox, a founder of Free Range Graphics used background information from GRACE to create The Meatrix. His decision to spoof The Matrix films was based on similarities he saw between the film and the corporate system of agribusiness beginning to dominate food production in the United States.
Globally, The Meatrix has been so successful that it has been translated into more than a dozen foreign languages, with voiceovers dubbed in Spanish and Polish. In 2004, the film was screened at eight international venues, including film festivals in Spain, The Netherlands, Australia and South Korea. French, German and Portuguese copies will be available in early 2005 to coincide with the official European release of the film.
"We’re seeing factory farms expanding into vulnerable communities in other countries," Slater noted. "The internet is providing a way for people around the world to find out how corporate agriculture has devastated other places and it is helping them learn how to use their voices and organizational skills to protect their food supply from industrial devastation."
The Meatrix is part of GRACE’s Sustainable Table project (www.SustainableTable.org), a consumer campaign that celebrates the sustainable food movement, educates individuals about the problems surrounding our food supply, and offers viable alternatives to food produced on factory farms.
GRACE is a nonprofit organization that works with research, policy and grassroots communities to raise awareness and promote solutions to preserve the planet for future generations. Visit us at www.gracelinks.org
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