Cows Take a Starring Role in New British Documentary

'The Moo Man,' a documentary about an organic dairy farmer proves a hit at film festivals.

Published

about 4 years ago

Categories

Science, Entertainment

Topics

Animals & Pets, Movies, Agriculture

People

Steve Hook, Heike Bachelier, Andy Heathcote

Transcript

Cows have become the break-out stars of new documentary "The Moo Man". The film centres around Steve Hook who runs a dairy farm where all the cows are treated well and even given names. The idea to make the movie literally landed on the doorstep of directors Andy Heathcote and Heike Bachelier. SOUNDBITE (English) The Moo Man director, Andy Heathcote, saying: "Steve the farmer delivers raw milk in glass bottles around the doors of the local villages and one of those is ours and each bottle has a picture of a cow on it with a little anecdote of the cow and we thought 'what kind of farmer does that? How can he stay in business?" And that's what the film shows - the struggles of one farmer in a world where commercial dairies and supermarkets hold power. SOUNDBITE (English) The Moo Man director, Heike Bachelier, saying: "You know we wanted to highlight the fact that farms are dying through this one positive story of the one farmer who actually manages to make a living by being very inventive about what he does." The pair reportedly swapped money for petrol to apply to Sundance. And since then the film has been gaining momentum at film festivals. SOUNDBITE (English) The Moo Man director, Andy Heathcote, saying: "It's absolutely fantastic but it's also fantastic that the farmer Steve in the film gets the recognition that he deserves and hopefully people will become aware how precious family farms are to us and the countryside and our connection to animals so to get recognition for the farmer is just the best thing in the world, really." "The Moo Man" has now secured a release in the UK in July, so the scene-stealing cows will now get some of their fifteen minutes of fame.