By: Rahal K.
You’re sleeping soundly on a grass mattress, adorned with pieces of fur for comfort and warmth. You fade into an accolade of dreams where the sun shines a burnt orange, and the sounds of birds chirping echo between your ears. All is well and life has provided its fruitful experiences. Suddenly, your bloodshot eyes tear away from your eyelids - limbs are strapped to a table with scratchy leather holding them down. You try to wriggle your way free before the syringe plunges itself into your eye, the liquid oozing into your veins and leaving a burning sensation. Blood curdling screams fill the room as you try to stop the wretched pain that is coming in contact with your body. Five seconds. Ten minutes. An hour has passed, and so has your struggles to relive the life you were meant to live. Instead, you are surrounded by the scent of latex gloves, images of large beings dressed in white coats as you lay shackled to a torture device. And who knows how long that will be. Forever perhaps.
Image from Hugethank via The Ethics of Animal Models in Preclinical Testing
This is the reality for most rabbits and other animals that are subject to animal testing. In fact, approximately 500,000 animals are used for cosmetic testing annually (Ibid 2021). Mammals such as rabbits or amphibians such as frogs that are used for any kind of testing undergo ruthless procedures to bring forth a new discovery such as the effectiveness of penicillin. For instance, “animals are forced to eat or inhale substances” to measure its severity “before almost always being killed” so scientists can observe a material’s effects (Ibid,2021).
Utilizing animals for testing is not only inhumane to their wellbeing, but also harmful for the environment overall. By obtaining various mammals, amphibians, primates for testing, it disrupts natural cycles and food chains, causing an ecological change within an environment that other creatures may not be adept to. When products are marked as hazardous to humans or potentially dangerous, these are usually disposed of in the environment. Exposing extremely dangerous chemicals into the environment contributes to the Earth’s ever growing pollution systems while also increasing the risk of spreading diseases (Akhtar 2015). With these concerns in mind, environmental organizations such as PETA have attempted to encourage individuals to limit/ban animal testing, but many countries still maintain this practice. According to the Understanding Animal Research (UAR) news team, Europe alone has a rate of 10,664,749 animal testing usage just in 2017.
Thus, this poses the question “how do we enact environmental policy changes where the people will listen?”. A promising solution is creating environmental short films that can captivate a wide audience. Unlike a general movie or TV show, short films encompass a message through a creative storyboard within a brief length of time. In most cases, short films propose a creative take on worldwide issues in a digestible manner for its audiences in order to provide a new perspective. In fact, one study by the Journal of Sustainability Education claimed that short films combine the “creative process of film production and engaging storytelling and artistic components increases awareness on climate or social change” (Gold et. al 2018). In this study, students were responsible for creating their own short films about an environmental issue, and thus were able to retain more info while also expressing their individuality. Another study by Professor Kabadayi, who specializes in communication and cinema, discusses the benefits of utilizing short films for education purposes. When using short films to discuss a topic, it was “revealed that students better taught their lectures via multi-media presentations rather than verbal lecture,” but were also “able to remember 70 percent of what had been taught in the first ten minutes” (Kabadayi 2012). In a study on recall after listening to a seminar, students forgot more than 90 percent of the points from the lecture after 14 days (Briggs 2015). Although both sources apply the educational value short films have within the classroom, they can also be used to raise awareness on environmental issues. The level of comprehension Professor Kabadayi mentioned in her study and the creative freedom provided to students in the previous study serve to highlight the significance short films hold in portraying an important topic of study or interest.
Previous short films have been created on environmental messages and have gained wide attention from various media outlets. From the Humane Society International , they uploaded a mockumentary on their webpage about animal testing in the spring of 2021. This mockumentary is titled Save Ralph, and showcases the process of animal testing in a satirical manner.
Save Ralph Cover Courtesy of Wikipedia
The film follows Ralph commenting about his “occupation” as a tester when the roof of his home is destroyed, and a blue latex glove grabs him, and places him on a conveyor belt. He is surrounded by other rabbits who all seem to have a pink eye. This most likely implies that their eyes are a result of syringes that had harmful chemicals in them. Nevertheless, Ralph maintains a cool manner as he describes the procedure of his role.
Save Ralph Cover Courtesy of Wikipedia
From the image above, it is clearly shown that the rabbits are kept in glass boxes with only their heads outside of them. The lights are dim and the exterior of the room gives off a foreboding presence. Suddenly, Ralph is given a syringe by a scientist and accompanied with screams from every bunny around. The mockumentary later ends with Ralph giving a sad smile as he blindly accepts his role as a tester. Overall, the imagery and lack of musicality in the short film drives viewers to feel unexplainable empathy and pain for Ralph when getting a close up of the torturous events behind their makeup brands or medicine. Also, since animal testing is a broad area of research, Save Ralph is able to compress this issue, yet still depict its prominence. As mentioned by Professor Kabadayi , a short film “enhances the memorization and the comprehension. It enables the student to remember the subjects easily and creates expression richness.” This can be directly seen with this mockumentary since many news articles and common individuals on social media have described Ralph’s grotesque physicality and the evidence of torture brought by animal testing procedures. One news source, the Entrepreneur, discussed the virality of Save Ralph being due to “the talent behind it” (Waititi 2021). By having Hollywood actors such as Ricky Gervais and Zac Efron in this short film, it broadened Ralph’s exposure across different celebrity fanbases, leading the issue to be more heavily dissected.
In a matter of weeks, the Humane Society International (2021) reported that this film propelled a “Mexican cosmetic animal testing ban bill” due to public support. Mexicans created a petition shortly after Save Ralph was uploaded and received over 1.2 million signatures! This demonstrated Mexico’s public interest to ban animal testing, but also sparked change for online communities to do the same. Along with Mexico’s petition, HSI’s webpage provides a user with the opportunity to sign a petition to tell cosmetic companies to start selling cruelty free products. Alongside this petition, a user can donate or spread Ralph’s message on different social media platforms. In fact, the HSI provides the user with an automated response to send to others.
Along with Save Ralph, an older short film titled MAN by Steve Cutts was uploaded on YouTube on Dec 21, 2012. Overtime, the film has received approximately 32 million views and continues to grow. This film showcases “animal abuse to polluting, noisy and overcrowded cities, Cutts displays mankind’s haughty idea of self” (Emma 2019). In the beginning scenes of the film, it depicts a yellow sky but objects on the ground are all black and white. In some instances, the MAN is seen to be dumping hazardous waste into a body of water and wearing a fur coat from an animal he skinned.
Screenshot from MAN courtesy of IMDb
Screenshot from MAN courtesy of Pinterest
In only seconds apart, Cutts was able to portray man’s selfish desire of material wealth and blissful ignorance to other living things. From contributing to water pollution to animal abuse, this short film does not shy away from illustrating such issues in an abrupt manner. Later on, as MAN destroys more natural objects/living things for his own needs, the entire background soon becomes black and white, where MAN is paraded among his own trash, but seems to be maniacally laughing at the state of his being. This seems to symbolize mankind’s destruction of nature through industrialization and fulfilling selfish desires. One notable aspect of this short film was the music that was chosen to complement this message. Cutts had chosen a classical piece where it progressively quickens its tempo and pitch. When that is paired with the actions of MAN, it releases a rush of apprehension and stress as viewers are witnessing the destruction of the Earth within a mere three minutes. This short film caught the attention of many news articles, including an interview with Steve Cutts himself on his illustrations.
Screenshot of MAN via YouTube
As time has progressed, so has the urgency for environmental sustainability to be practiced among many. Many struggle with sustainable practices whether that be due to income or other factors that limit one's morals. Therefore, short films provide a solution in a sense of creative freedom. By producing short films (especially animated ones), this allows both filmmakers and audiences to be aware of their carbon footprint, their impact on the environment and what they can do to curtail climate change’s influence. In addition, many environmental issues have layers within their context, conflict, and law policies. By creating short films with an aim on ecological issues, this allows audiences to easily comprehend large pieces of information and the value behind it. This also offers a higher rate of awareness on such issues, such as what was seen with Save Ralph and Mexico’s response. To become more environmentally aware, short films propose a new lens to curate such issues to the general public who may not have access to educational resources or simply may not be persuaded in initial moments. If Ralph can be saved, so can the Earth.
Discussion Questions:
What are some environmental short films you have seen that have changed your worldview?
How can illustrative mediums such as short films, graphic novels, posters, etc portray an issue that you’re passionate about? How would you create your message?
Works Cited:
Akhtar, Aysha. “The Flaws and Human Harms of Animal Experimentation.” Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics : CQ : the International Journal of Healthcare Ethics Committees, Cambridge University Press, Oct. 2015, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4594046/.
Briggs, Saga, et al. “Why Straight-a Students Haven't Learned as Much as You Think.”
InformED, 20 July 2015,
Cruelty Free International. “Which Animals Are Used in Cosmetic Tests? .” Cruelty Free International, 2021, www.crueltyfreeinternational.org/which-animals-are-used-cosmetics-tests#:~:text=Half%20a%20million%20animals%20are,more%20than%201%2C369%20today%20alone.
Davies, Aran. “Support Short Films - Why Short Films Are Here to Stay.” Sofy.tv - Blog, 27 Aug. 2019, sofy.tv/blog/support-short-films/.
Ebert, Grace. “Save Ralph: A Stop-Motion Animation Critiques the Devastating Impacts of Animal Testing.” Colossal, 8 Apr. 2021, www.thisiscolossal.com/2021/04/save-ralph-short-film/.
Emma, and Emma. “Illustrator Steve Cutts Is Exposing the Grisly Side of Humanity.” Study Breaks, 8 Apr. 2019, studybreaks.com/tvfilm/steve-cutts-exposes-grisly-side-humanity-animated-youtube-shorts/.
Gold, Anne U., et al. "Student-produced short films about impacts of climate change on local
communities: An effective approach that combines art and place-based learning
opportunities and challenges of program implementation with secondary school
students." Journal of Sustainability Education 17.ISSN: 2151-7452 (2018).
Kabadayi. “Science, Health and Medical Journals, Full Text Articles and Books.” ScienceDirect.com | Science, Health and Medical Journals, Full Text Articles and Books., www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042812023932/pdf?md5=de7f01b0000fd9552374effb684fb9db&pid=1-s2.0-S1877042812023932-main.pdf.
“Man - by STEVE CUTTS: Steve, Man, Art.” Pinterest, 3 July 2021, in.pinterest.com/pin/464715255272232812/.
“Man.” IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/title/tt3175218/.
Moore, Sarah. “The Ethics of Animal Models in PRECLINICAL TESTING.” News, 25 Feb. 2021, www.news-medical.net/life-sciences/The-Ethics-of-Animal-Models-in-Preclinical-Testing.aspx.
“Ralph.” Humane Society International, 29 June 2021, www.hsi.org/saveralphmovie/.
Río, Mariel Otero del. “Why the 'Save Ralph' Short Went Viral.” Entrepreneur, Entrepreneur, 14 Apr. 2021, www.entrepreneur.com/article/369424.
Steviecutts. “Man.” YouTube, YouTube, 21 Dec. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfGMYdalClU.
UAR. “EU-Wide Animals in Research Statistics for 2017 Released: UNDERSTANDING Animal Research.” Understanding Animal Research, 2020, www.understandinganimalresearch.org.uk/news/communications-media/eu-wide-animals-in-research-statistics-for-2017-released/.
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