UNLOCKING THE CAGE (USA 2015) ***
Directed by D A Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus

Review by Gilbert Seah

Do animals have certain rights as humans? Animals are caged and cannot argue their way out. The same can be said for the inhuman way chicken and cattle are reared for food.

UNLOCKING THE CAGE closely follows animal rights lawyer Steven Wise in his unprecedented challenge to break down the legal wall that separates animals from humans. After 30 years of struggling with ineffective animal welfare laws, Steve and his legal team, the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP), are making history by filling the first lawsuits that seek to transform an animal from a “thing” with no rights to a “person” with legal protections.

Supported by affidavits from primatologists around the world, Steve maintains that, based on scientific evidence, cognitively complex animals such as chimpanzees, whales, dolphins and elephants have the capacity for limited personhood rights (such as bodily liberty) that would protect them from physical abuse. Using writs of habeas corpus (historically used to free humans from unlawful imprisonment), Wise argues on behalf of four captive chimpanzees in New York State.
The film spends a considerable amount of time trying to convince the audience of the supposedly monumental shift in our culture, as the public and judicial system show increasing receptiveness to Steve’s impassioned arguments. It is an intimate look at a lawsuit that could forever transform out legal system, and one man’s lifelong quest to protect “nonhuman” animals. But he audience gets the point quite wary without the idea having to be constantly drummed into the audience.

There is nothing really wrong with this well intentioned documentary that achieves its aim of what it is supposed to do – which is to inform and to rally up people for animal rights and more. But being so straight forward, it is quite a boring doc tailing the activists from start to finish. There is more anger generated in the many other documentaries about abuse of other animals like sharks (for their fins), dolphins and other animals. UNLOCKING THE CAGE, though moving at times, is tame in comparison.

UNLOCKING THE CAGE had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2016 and its Canadian Premiere at the Hot Docs Film Festival in May 2016. It will open in Toronto on August 19th at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. The opening night screening in Toronto will be followed by a Q & A session with Steven Wise, via Skype, moderated by Canada’s first animal rights lawyer, Lesli Bisgould.