For meat eaters, bacon makes everything better. However, some may change their mind after watching Okja. The Vegan Society at Pierce College hosted Thursday a film screening about a genetically modified pig and her stand against evil corporations who try to take her unlikely friend away.
Many students and professors gathered in the Great Hall to watch the screening of the Netflix Original film.
According to the President of the Vegan Society Alicia Salazar, the organization has done documentaries about veganism in the past to inform the students about the benefits being vegan has on people’s health. Salazar states they wanted to “Do something new.”
“In this case we did Okja to let the people understand the animal right system and the environmental system. It’s a very powerful movie, the students will have a better understanding and it would grab the students attention. Also it is another way to spread veganism,” Salazar said.
According to Stephanie Winnard an adjunct professor of psychology at Pierce and faculty advisor for the Vegan Club, Okja is heavily based in science fiction but the central themes in the movie hold relevance to the message of the Vegan Society.
“It’s important for people to feel empathy for animals because animals feel pain just like we do. Animals, not only our cats and dogs, but animals raised for food, they also feels pain and they have capacity to suffer. It’s important for everyone in our community to think about this and to inspire empathy to everyone,” Winnard said.
Pierce College student Lauren Alpanian said vegan documentaries usually don’t succeed in impacting people to rid themselves from animal products.
“It is important to everyone to be here and watch this movie because it’s not just facts and facts like most of vegan documentaries, it’s more like a real movie were you can feel more connected when you see how it’s done,” Alpanian said.
Aaron Morales, anthropology major and a newly enrolled freshman to Pierce College, said he was pleasantly surprised that Pierce has events like these. After watching the screening he is now considering going vegan.
“The movie makes you think about eating meat versus going vegan. It was cool in here and I’m a new student. You can just chill, eat free popcorn. All of it was nice,” Morales said.