Film Screening: Unlocking the Cage

Date

Wednesday May 17, 2023

Location

Schikaneder Cinema
Margaretenstraße 24
1040 Vienna

18:00

Doors open. Get-Together and vegan buffet

19:00

Film start

20:30

Q&A/Discussion

Registration

Unfortunately all seats are taken already.

A number of countries including Austria have achieved ground breaking court rulings challenging the notion that nonhuman animals cannot be persons. This moving film focuses on progess in the USA pioneered by animal rights lawyer Steven Wise. Join VGT and EA Austria for the screening and discussion in Schikaneder Cinema with special virtual live guest Elizabeth Stein. Elizabeth is one of the animal rights lawyers featured in the film and will answer audience questions. Tickets are free, but we are sorry, there aren't any more available.

Unlocking the Cage, 2016, 1 Std. 31 Min. Directors: Chris Hegedus, D.A. Pennebaker, USA

Unlocking the Cage 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 filing 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. Unlocking the Cage captures a 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 our legal system, and one man's lifelong quest to protect nonhuman animals.

The cinema has full wheelchair accessibility.

Report in the animal rights radio