Blooded | |
---|---|
Directed by | Edward Boase |
Written by | James Walker |
Produced by | Nick Ashdon |
Starring | Nick Ashdon Adam Best Oliver Boot Isabella Calthorpe Mark Dexter Sharon Duncan Brewster Tracy Ifeachor Joseph Kloska Neil McDermott Cicely Tennant |
Cinematography | Kate Reid |
Edited by | Edward Boase |
Music by | Ilan Eshkeri Jeff Toyne |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Revolver Entertainment |
Release dates |
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Running time | 76 minutes |
Country | England |
Language | English |
Blooded is a 2011 British independent horror/thriller film written by James Walker, produced by Magma Pictures and Ptarmigan ACP and directed by Edward Boase, his first feature. [3] [4] [5] [6] The film premiered at the Bradford International Film Festival on 18 March 2011.
The plot involves an animal rights action group calling themselves the "Real Animal League", which kidnaps five young deer hunters and then hunts them. It is filmed in a mockumentary style. As part of the promotion, distributor Revolver Entertainment created a website, realanimalleague.com, for the fictional Real Animal League (RAL), which mentions the film. [7] An email statement to the real animal rights group, Animal Liberation Front (ALF), supposedly from the RAL claiming that the film misrepresented them, was reprinted on the ALF website. The Evening Standard reported that the film "caused outrage after graphic scenes showing activists attacking five deer-stalkers were posted on the internet, in a viral publicity campaign," [4] and the film's topic has provoked reactions from parties on both side of the hunting debate in the UK. [8]
Filming was completed in 2009, [6] shot in a mockumentary style, [7] using interviews and internet footage. [3] The plot involves a group of five young deer hunters on a hunt in Scotland. Eve Jourdan (Tracy Ifeachor) bags a deer and is "blooded", a hunting ritual where the blood of a first kill is smeared on a hunter's face. The following morning, an extremist animal rights action group calling themselves the "Real Animal League", kidnaps the five, strips them to their underwear, and leaves each alone in different locations across the hills, setting them as prey of other hunters. The league films the events in first person style as the five become the "game" in a hunt, with the intention of using the footage as a warning to other hunters. It is their "documentary" footage that is the basis of the film. [5] [7] [8] [9]
As part of the film promotion, Revolver Entertainment created a website for the fictional Real Animal League (RAL), [8] [10] and a YouTube channel for the RAL, which both mentioned the film. According to director Edward Boase, the production company created the appearance of a "fully-fledged animal rights website", [7] with links to real organisations in order to make the fake organisation appear authentic, but "not to the point where you couldn't find out that it wasn't real." [7] As reported in First Post , the hunting incident in the film was fictional, there was no kidnapping, and there is no organisation called the "Real Animal League". [7] Revolver Entertainment's marketing department sent an email statement to the real animal rights group, Animal Liberation Front (ALF), supposedly from the Real Animal League, claiming that the film misrepresented the RAL. The email was reprinted in its entirety on the ALF website. [7] [8] When the event and RAL were revealed as fictional, and after thousands of complaints, [4] YouTube deemed the videos as inappropriate and removed the footage that had been posted under the guise of the Real Animal League of the film's protagonists being chased and forced into confessions, and subsequently deactivated the YouTube channel of the fictional RAL. [7]
Blooded premiered at the Bradford International Film Festival on 18 March 2011. [9] It will have limited release in select theatres and on-demand services on 1 April 2011. [11] [12] A DVD release is planned for 4 April 2011, [11] which will include extras such as commentary by film makers, extended interviews, the "making of Blooded", and the short film Home Video by Ed Boase. [12]
The film's topic has provoked reactions from parties on both side of the hunting debate in the UK. [7] In promoting the film, its makers originally asserted that it was a re-creation of an actual event that occurred after the enactment of the 2005 hunting ban in England, [3] maintaining that the film, rather than trying to make any political points, only investigates "the nature of extremism" in any form, [6] and "encourages debate". [4]
The Evening Standard wrote that the film "caused outrage after graphic scenes showing activists attacking five deer-stalkers were posted on the internet, in a viral publicity campaign." [4]
The Independent noted the film's controversial stance, and that as the film's asserted protagonists were a group of extreme animal activists, it generated "much chatter on the interweb" after clips appeared on Youtube. They wrote however, "it all has the whiff of a clever publicity stunt". [3] This is a stance echoed in many other online reviews with suggestions that it is a mockumentary that leaves the viewer with [ sic ] "no doubt that it is fabricated". [7] A website called Film Pilgrim . for example, noted that the project first began as an online viral video, but was expanded into a feature film, writing that the expanded footage "has many people debating about the authenticity of the footage." They praised the film's score, writing "The soundtrack for Blooded is one of its most rewarding elements", being "the bulk of the glue that holds the film together." They offered that the "idea of turning an internet viral video into a feature film/documentary is a pretty interesting concept", but that the film fell flat stylistically in that the "reconstructed footage feels like an actual film which detracts from the realism that the original virals created". They speculated in their review that there was in fact no such organization as the Real Animal League at all, and that the film was created as a hoax in the Blair Witch tradition. [13]
The List classed it as an example of a "fantastic piece of filmmaking that shows what is achievable if you get creative within your budget". [14]
The film's soundtrack was created by award-winning and Ivor Novello-nominated composer Ilan Eshkeri and Jeff Toyne. The score was recorded by the London Metropolitan Orchestra at British Grove Studios and produced by Steve McLaughlin. [15]
Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products, for recreation/taxidermy, although it may also be done for resourceful reasons such as removing predators dangerous to humans or domestic animals, to eliminate pests and nuisance animals that damage crops/livestock/poultry or spread diseases, for trade/tourism, or for ecological conservation against overpopulation and invasive species.
Fox hunting is a traditional activity involving the tracking, chase and, if caught, the killing of a fox, normally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds. A group of unarmed followers, led by a "master of foxhounds", follow the hounds on foot or on horseback.
A mockumentary is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events, but presented as a documentary. The term originated in the 1960s but was popularized in the mid-1990s when This Is Spinal Tap director Rob Reiner used it in interviews to describe that film.
The Matagi are traditional winter hunters of the Tōhoku region of northern Japan, most famously today in the Ani area in Akita Prefecture, which is known for the Akita dogs. Afterwards, it spread to the Shirakami-Sanchi forest between Akita and Aomori, and other areas of Japan. Documented as a specialised group from the medieval period onwards, the Matagi continue to hunt deer and bear in the present day, and their culture has much in common with the bear worship of the Ainu people.
The League Against Cruel Sports, formerly known as the League for the Prohibition of Cruel Sports, is a UK-based animal welfare charity which campaigns to stop blood sports such as fox hunting, hare and deer hunting; game bird shooting; and animal fighting. The charity helped bring about the Hunting Act 2004 and Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002, which banned hunting with hounds in England, Wales and Scotland.
Game or quarry is any wild animal hunted for animal products, for recreation ("sporting"), or for trophies. The species of animals hunted as game varies in different parts of the world and by different local jurisdictions, though most are terrestrial mammals and birds. Fish caught non-commercially are also referred to as game fish.
The Hunt Saboteurs Association (HSA) is a United Kingdom organisation that uses hunt sabotage as a means of direct action to stop fox hunting. It was founded in 1963, with its first sabotage event occurring at the South Devon Foxhounds on 26 December 1963.
The Hunting Act 2004 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which bans the hunting of most wild mammals with dogs in England and Wales, subject to some strictly limited exemptions; the Act does not cover the use of dogs in the process of flushing out an unidentified wild mammal, nor does it affect drag hunting, where hounds are trained to follow an artificial scent.
The animal rightsmovement, sometimes called the animal liberation, animal personhood, or animal advocacy movement, is a social movement that advocates an end to the rigid moral and legal distinction drawn between human and non-human animals, an end to the status of animals as property, and an end to their use in the research, food, clothing, and entertainment industries.
Hunt sabotage is the direct action that animal rights activists and animal liberation activists undertake to interfere with hunting activity.
Ronnie Lee is a British animal rights activist. He is known primarily for being the Press Officer for the UK Animal Liberation Front (ALF) in 1976. He also founded the magazine Arkangel in 1989.
Deer hunting is hunting deer for meat and sport, and, formerly, for producing buckskin hides, an activity which dates back tens of thousands of years. Venison, the name for deer meat, is a nutritious and natural food source of animal protein that can be obtained through deer hunting. There are many different types of deer around the world that are hunted for their meat. For sport, often hunters try to kill deer with the largest and most antlers to score them using inches. There are two different categories of antlers. They are typical and nontypical. They measure tine length, beam length, and beam mass by each tine. They will add all these measurements up to get a score. This score is the score without deductions. Deductions occur when the opposite tine is not the same length as it is opposite. That score is the deducted score.
Opposition to hunting is espoused by people or groups who object to the practice of hunting, often seeking anti-hunting legislation and sometimes taking on acts of civil disobedience, such as hunt sabotage. Anti-hunting laws, such as the English Hunting Act 2004, are generally distinguishable from conservation legislation like the American Marine Mammal Protection Act by whether they seek to reduce or prevent hunting for perceived cruelty-related reasons or to regulate hunting for conservation, although the boundaries of distinction are sometimes blurred in specific laws, for example when endangered animals are hunted.
Ultime grida dalla savana, also known as by its English title Savage Man Savage Beast, is a 1975 Italian mondo documentary film co-produced, co-written, co-edited and co-directed by Antonio Climati and Mario Morra. Filmed all around the world, its central theme focuses on hunting and the interaction between man and animal. Like many mondo films, the filmmakers claim to document real, bizarre and violent behavior and customs, although some scenes were actually staged. It is narrated by the Italian actor and popular dubber Giuseppe Rinaldi and the text was written by Italian novelist Alberto Moravia.
This timeline of Animal Liberation Front (ALF) actions describes the history, consequences and theory of direct action on behalf of animals by animal liberation activists using, or associated with the ALF.
The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) is an international, leaderless, decentralized movement that emerged in Britain in the 1970s, evolving from the Bands of Mercy. It operates without a formal leadership structure and engages in direct actions aimed at opposing animal cruelty.
James Walker is a British writer and filmmaker. He lives in London and studied at Radley College and Trinity College, Cambridge University where he read English and received a 1st Class Honors Degree. He is a director of Magma Pictures and the Young Film Academy. His first feature film, Blooded, had a UK cinema release on 1 April 2011 and was released on the UK DVD market. Blooded caused a great deal of controversy at the time of the film's release, promotional viral videos were removed from video-sharing websites following action by animal rights protesters.
Hunting is a popular recreational pursuit and a tourist activity in New Zealand with numerous books and magazines published on the topic. Unlike most other developed countries with a hunting tradition, there are no bag-limits or seasons for hunting large game in New Zealand. Hunting in national parks is a permitted activity. The wide variety of game animals and the limited restrictions means hunting is a popular pastime which has resulted in a high level of firearms ownership among civilians.
Trollhunter is a 2010 Norwegian dark fantasy film, made as a "found footage" mockumentary. Written and directed by André Øvredal and featuring a mixed cast of relatively unknown actors and well-known Norwegian comedians, including Otto Jespersen, Trollhunter received positive reviews from Norwegian critics. It opened on 10 June 2011 in the US to a mostly positive critical reception.
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