We are all one.
We are all interconnected.
Not a single creature is separated.
The Interconnectedness of Life is a book and full feature documentary film by Michael Lanfield, produced by We are Interconnected Films. Michael started writing the book in August 2010 and filming May 2013. Currently in writing and production, the project will be expected to be released in 2015. The main focus is the relationship between humans, animals and the natural world.
• Why is there so much suffering all around us?
• What is the meaning of life?
• Is this the way we are supposed to live?
• Why are humans so destructive?
FEATURING
Jonathan Balcombe, PhD
Jonathan Balcombe, PhD is the Department Chair for Animal Studies with Humane Society University. He is the author of Pleasurable Kingdom: Animals and the Nature of Feeling Good, Second Nature: The Inner Lives of Animals, and The Exultant Ark: A Pictorial Tour of Animal Pleasure.
Quinny Chiang
Quinny Chiang is a holistic nutritionist, a raw vegan and lifestyle coach, a writer and blogger. She has 3 years of raw vegan education and 2 years of coaching experience. She teaches a fruit based diet – the 80/10/10 diet, and the natural hygiene lifestyle. On her website www.ournaturaldiet.com, she posts bi-weekly articles on her blog to share her nutritional knowledge, provides health tips and answers health questions.
Matt Bear
Matt Bear grew up in Minnesota on his grandparents’ animal farm. Through his teens, he lived and worked on an intensive pig factory farm. Matt is a popular speaker and teacher drawing from his first-hand experience with farmed animals, his dedication to social justice issues, and his broad understanding of the impact our consumer choices have on those with whom we share the world. Matt founded NonviolenceUnited.org, created the popular VEGAN shirt from VeganShirt.com, and produced the widely acclaimed video A Life Connected (VeganVideo.org) – now available in 16 languages and seen by millions around the world. Matt currently serves as Director of Vegan Projects at Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM) and continues to direct Nonviolence United.
Lucie Battaglia
Coming Soon!
Michael Lanfield
Michael Lanfield is the writer, producer and director of the film The Interconnectedness of Life. He is also writing his 2nd book book under the same name. He self released his first book, The Journey to Compassionate Living in 2011. He is an animal rights activist, author, speaker, filmmaker and photographer from Toronto, Canada. He founded We are Interconnected Films in May 2013 to produce educational and enlightening books, films and other media. He has worked and volunteered with many organizations and organized many events including the Toronto Vegan Expo, which he founded. Michael is currently working and designing websites for Toronto Pig Save and maintains his website www.michaellanfield.com and YouTube channel www.youtube.com/user/tarve2010.
Laura Lee
Coming Soon!
Karen Davis, PhD
Karen Davis, PhD is the President and Founder of United Poultry Concerns, a nonprofit organization that promotes the compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl including a sanctuary for chickens on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Her essays appear in Experiencing Animal Minds (2012), Critical Theory and Animal Liberation (2011), Sister Species (2011), Animals and Women (1995), and many other publications on the lives and feelings of animals and trans-species psychology. Her books include Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs: An Inside Look at the Modern Poultry Industry; More Than a Meal: The Turkey in History, Myth, Ritual, and Reality; Instead of Chicken, Instead of Turkey: A Poultryless “Poultry” Potpourri; A Home for Henny; and The Holocaust and the Henmaid’s Tale: A Case for Comparing Atrocities. Karen and UPC are the subjects of the Genesis Award-winning article “For the Birds” in The Washington Post. In 2012 Karen was profiled in “Won’t Back Down” in the Altoona Mirror in Pennsylvania where she grew up. In 2002 Karen Davis was inducted into the U.S. Animal Rights Hall of Fame “for outstanding contributions to animal liberation.”
Judy Carman
Judy Carman is a long-time vegan, animal rights, environmental, and peace and justice activist. She is the author of Peace to All Beings: Veggie Soup for the Chicken’s Soul which was voted one of the best spiritual books of 2003 by Spirituality and Health magazine. She is co-author with Tina Volpe, The Missing Peace: The Hidden Power of our Kinship with Animals. Judy is co-founder of numerous activist groups, including the animal rights group Animal Outreach of Kansas. She is also co-founder, with Will and Madeleine Tuttle, of the Worldwide Prayer Circle for Animals at www.circleofcompassion.org and the Prayer Circle for Animals facebook. Her writing includes the vegan “Eating as Though the Earth Matters” column for Sierra Club’s “Planet Kansas,” a weekly article for prayer circle members, and her blog at www.peacetoallbeings.com where prayer flags for animals can be purchased. She has taken part in emergency animal rescues with United Animal Nations’ Red Rover program. She powers her vehicles on used veggie oil and loves to spend time kayaking and playing with her grandkids. Judy Carman’s passion is to look everywhere for the love and the beauty that flows through and links all faiths and all beings. She is dedicated to the liberation of all animals from human oppression and sharing the vision of a world at peace inspired by Schweitzer, Gandhi, Einstein, and others. They believed that inner peace and world peace could be achieved, but only if human beings learned to expand their circle of compassion beyond the human sphere to include all beings and nature. She is dedicated also to helping animal advocates find ways to integrate inner spiritual growth, prayer power, and nonviolent resistance into their activist work.
John Sakars
John Sakars from Niagara Falls, Canada is a visual and performance artist, writer, and public speaker. He’s been a vegan and animal rights activist since 1998. He leaflets for Vegan Outreach.
Diane Gandee Sorbi
Diane Gandee Sorbi is an animal rights activist living in Redwood City, California, USA, with her vegan husband. She leaflets with Vegan Outreach, and enjoys reading, gardening, cooking awesome vegan food, and simple living. She doesn’t watch television, she’d rather watch the world go vegan.
David Sztybel, PhD
David Sztybel PhD, obtained his doctorate in animal rights ethics from the University of Toronto’s Department of Philosophy in 2000. After running that Department’s essay writing clinic for a year, he completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Queen’s University in 2001-2002, focused on the ethics of anti-vivisection. He also lectured for two years in the Sociology Department at Brock University. He has authored 19 peer-reviewed academic articles, taught 13 university courses, and has presented to many academic and general audiences. Areas of research interest are wide-ranging, and include: animal rights, ethical theory, ahimsa, the feminist ethic of care, legislative tactics and movement strategy, socialist theory, environmental ethics, normative sociology, epistemology, and the philosophy of religion. He has been a vegan animal rights activist since 1987. Sztybel was co-founder and organizer with University of Toronto Students for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and long-time activist with groups including Canadian Vegans for Animal Rights, ARK II, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Animal Alliance of Canada, Freedom for Animals, Toronto Animal Rights Society, the Toronto Vegetarian Association, the Toronto Veggie Pride Parade, and Toronto Pig Save. In recent years, he has shifted from strong grassroots activism to more emphasis on ideas-roots activism. Currently, he works in Toronto as a teacher, author, and occasional public speaker. Dr. Sztybel also attained a B. Ed. Degree in 2006 from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, and is pleased to have made various contributions to public teaching. He belonged for several years to the Fellowship program of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, but left in 2011, only to begin a research fellowship at the University of Vienna.
Coleen Tew
Coming Soon!
Brenda Brofman
Brenda Brofman, the founder/owner of Wishing Well Sanctuary, is a mother of six: three magnificent adult children and three wonderful dogs. A lifelong passion for animals and their well-being, Brenda understood at an early age that all beings have feelings and that we are indeed all connected. From knowing and playing with all the dogs in her neighbourhood as a child to becoming President of the Board of the Toronto Humane Society, Brenda’s dedication has been unwavering. Her sensitivity to people being picked on at school and later becoming aware of others being maligned and marginalized, Brenda has had a lifelong commitment to championing those less fortunate and without a voice. She will work tirelessly to see to it that the Sanctuary makes a wonderful difference in the lives it touches and beyond!
More to be announced…
