“Let’s watch a film about meat and chill.” A hard sell as a date movie perhaps but Meat is full of surprises. What I can promise is that you will be moved by this charming document of three New Zealand farmers (pig, sheep, chooks) and a hunter. I know I was.
David White’s documentary is on a mission, not to demonise, or fetishise, the production of meat in N.Z but to shine a light without hysteria or hagiography. I suspect he’s one of those rural types that think city slickers imagine their meat is born with the cling film attached, and he’s set out to set us straight.
What transpires is akin to a quartet of full immersion experiences comprising three farm-stays and a hunting trip. White has assembled a quartet of understated yet fascinating characters: There’s the high country hunter straight from central casting who firmly believes that we modern kiwis have lost our hunter-gatherer gumption. There’s an ex-policewoman turned sheep farmer who deals to her flock with tough love, and a charming chicken farmer who lets Meat poke around his entire poultry set-up. Even the grim reality of caged pig life takes on a new complexion, though the pork farmer works the hardest to make the audience see his point of view.
I loved this film, and at risk of trotting out that tired old preach, it really should be seen by every New Zealander, carnivore and vegetarian alike. A highly entertaining portrait of the human kiwi animal.
