This free film screening and interdisciplinary panel will focus on whether certain species of animals - specifically the most cognitively complex ones - should be recognized as legal persons with fundamental rights such as bodily liberty and integrity. The film is the 2016 documentary “Unlocking the Cage” directed by award-winning filmmakers Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker. The film features lawyer Steven Wise and his legal team, the Nonhuman Rights Project. Using affidavits from primatologists, Wise argues on the basis of scientific evidence that we are morally obligated to grant limited personhood rights to cognitively complex animals to protect them from abuse.
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“Thoughtful, Compelling and Heroic. The film made me proud to be a primate.” |
“In their new documentary, D A Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus bring their relaxed, acute observational style of filmmaking to bear on a thorny tangle of legal and philosophical questions. Observant and absorbing.” |
Panelists include: Steven Wise (founder & president, Nonhuman Rights Project), Gloria Grow (founder & director, Fauna Foundation), Dr. Mary Lee Jensvold (associate director & primate communication scientist, Fauna Foundation), Dr. Will Kymlicka (Canada Research Chair in Political Philosophy, Queen’s University; co-author of Zoopolis), and Sue Donaldson (author and research fellow, Queen’s University; co-author of Zoopolis). Chaired by Prof. Vaughan Black (professor of law, Dalhousie University).
Please join us at the Paul O’Regan Hall, Halifax Central Library on March 20, 2017 from 6:00 PM – 9:30 PM. Doors open at 5:30 PM and there will be free food and refreshments. All are welcome. Free admission. |