Arabic version: توني جونز يتناول تجارب الحيوانات في «سينشنت»
According to The Guardian, journalist and documentary film-maker Tony Jones has premiered Sentient, a film examining the ethics and consequences of animal testing. Jones co-wrote and directed the documentary, while his wife, ABC 7.30 host Sarah Ferguson, was its executive producer.
Jones attended Sundance in January for the film’s premiere. The couple, who met while working in Paris in the early 1990s, have collaborated professionally before and share three adult sons: Felix, Cosmo and Lucien. Jones said their personal and professional relationship has been “remarkably easy”, while acknowledging occasional tension over scripts and a story’s direction.
Sentient centres on primatologist Dr Lisa Jones-Engel, who worked with primates in laboratories and in field research before becoming an animal rights activist. Jones said he does not share that position, describing himself as “very far from being an activist”. He said the film was intended to allow viewers to reach their own conclusions about whether animal-testing practices should continue and whether efforts to find alternatives should be intensified.
The documentary had originally been planned as a six-part series on human treatment of animals across industries, but it became focused on macaques and the supply chain taking them from the wild to laboratories in the US and other undisclosed locations. It includes undercover footage of primates being captured, transported in “coffin-like” containers and held in cages described as no bigger than a telephone booth.
The film presents arguments on both sides, including the role of animal testing in medicines such as polio vaccines, cancer drugs and HIV antiretroviral therapy. Jones highlighted the film’s finding that 95% of drugs tested on animals fail in human trials. Sentient screens at the Melbourne international film festival on 11 and 13 August, followed by special screenings in Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane from 17 to 21 August. It opens in select Australian cinemas on 27 August.
