A Cow On My Table (1998)

A Cow at My Table explores Western attitudes towards farm animals and meat, and the intense battle between animal advocates and the meat industry to influence the consumer’s mind.

Five years in production took Director Jennifer Abbott across Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand to meet with the leaders of the animal rights movement, animal welfare advocates as well as spokespeople from livestock industries.

A Cow at My Table inter-cuts these diverse perspectives with archival films, images from modern-day agribusiness and footage of farm animals shot from uncharacteristic vantage points. The result, say critics and programmers, is a documentary that is “brilliant,” “visually smart,” “extremely accomplished” and “extraordinarily compelling and powerful.”

In the words of Toronto’s NOW Magazine film critic Cameron Bailey, “Like all the best documentaries, this film offers more questions than answers.”