To cap off its over yearlong festival run, the gripping docudrama feature Mercy, written and directed by UK-based actress Wendy Morgan, has been named an official selection of the 12th edition of the Awareness Film Festival, scheduled from October 21 to 31, 2021 at the Regal Cinemas in downtown Los Angeles.
Organized by the non-profit Heal One World, the annual festival places the spotlight on filmmakers whose works make positive changes throughout the world.
The film tells the tragic story of the life and death of a factory-farmed pig named Mercy, played by Maria Austin, and the devastation caused by ‘animal agriculture’. (*animal agriculture, or factory farming, is the mass industrialization of the breeding, raising, and slaughter of animals for human consumption.) Mark Wingett (Quadrophenia, EastEnders), Annette Badland (Ted Lasso, Doctors, EastEnders), John Pickering, Catherine Shipton, and Wendy Morgan (Yanks, Mrs. Lowry and Son with Vanessa Redgrave) round out the cast.
In her hidden world, those who Mercy encounters on her journey from factory farm to slaughterhouse are changed forever. As our world teeters on the precipice of ecological destruction, the heart of Mercy’s story is empathy across communities, across all species and the hope to see the dawn of universal change
The film, which includes horrific, real-life footage of the atrocities occurring in slaughterhouses, was made with the purpose to shine a light on the mental and physical effect on workers within the animal agriculture industry; the link between animal agriculture and climate change; the link between factory farming, pandemics and zoonotic diseases; the living conditions of factory-farmed animals; and the need for independently monitored CCTV in all slaughterhouses. Watch the trailer below:
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Morgan, an accomplished actress, discusses her reason for making the film: “I’ve been an actor all of my adult life, 43 years and happily counting, lucky to have worked in some extraordinary places with some extraordinary people. But Mercy was a slight detour from the world of being ‘just an actor.’”
She adds, “I am in films but have never made my own. I even tried not to make this film, for fear that it might simply prove too difficult. My dear friend Tim Pigott-Smith said to me after reading a draft of Mercy: “You write as if your pen is bleeding… try writing something you aren’t so passionate about.”
The film’s executive producers are Carol Royle, Christopher Guard, Richard Deboo, David Wilkinson and Mili Cumic. Charity and non-profit partners include Viva!, Compassion in World Farming, Animal Aid, Animal Equality, and Plant-Based Treaty.
Mercy will have its Los Angeles premiere on October 31st at 4 p.m. PST at Regal Cinemas (1000 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90015). Morgan and Austin have also been invited to speak in-person on the festival panel Only One Earth/Activism, taking place on October 28th at 5:00 p.m. PST.
