The Meatrix

The Meatrix, www.themeatrix.com, is a humorous 4-minute Flash™ animation that spoofs The Matrix films and highlights the problems with factory farming. Instead of Keanu Reeves, The Meatrix stars a young pig, Leo, who lives on a pleasant family farm... he thinks. Leo is approached by a trenchcoat-clad cow, Moopheus, who shows him the ugly truth about agribusiness, complete with a send-up of the “stop-motion” camerawork immortalized by the Matrix.The mix of humor, pop culture references, and an important message clearly resonates with a wide segment of the web-using public.

In early 2003, web and design firm Free Range Graphics invited nonprofit groups from around the country to submit proposals for their first-ever Free Range Flash Activism Grant. After reviewing over 50 proposals, Free Range awarded the grant to the Sustainable Table division of , a program committed to educating the public about factory farms and promoting sustainable agriculture.

With background material provided by Sustainable Table, the Free Range Graphics team created The Meatrix film. Their decision to spoof The Matrix was based on the many similarities between the film and today's corporate system of agriculture.

Less than three months after the November 3rd, 2003, release, over 4.2 million people viewed The Meatrix, including individuals in Europe, South America, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, China, Korea and Japan. And over two years after release, more than 200,000 new people continue to watch the film each month. This is an unprecedented success for an online advocacy film.
The Meatrix has been so successful that emails continue to pour in asking for offline copies to be shown at schools, presentations, conferences, festivals and events. The film has won several awards, including the Annecy International Animated Film Festival's “Netsurfers Award” for Short Films for the Internet and the Media That Matters Film Festival's “Film for Thought” award. The Meatrix has also been accepted into film festivals around the world.

Foreign language versions have been created for The Meatrix, including Polish, Spanish, French, German and Brazilian Portuguese. The script has been translated and subtitled in over 20 languages, including Russian, Japanese, Italian, Mandarin and Greek. Groups around the world have responded, and 11 separate action pages have been created, including ones for Canada, Australia, Brazil and Poland, as well as a general European Union section.

Press coverage has included Bill Moyers NOW program on PBS, USA Today, CNN Headline News, the Guardian (UK), the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, NPR, MichaelMoore.com, and many other newspapers, magazines and radio shows. The film even reached the top of Blogdex.net's “most contagious information currently spreading in the weblog community” and has been featured on thousands of blogs, message boards and listservs.

Sustainable Table celebrates the sustainable food movement, educates consumers on food-related issues and works to build community through food. Sustainable Table was created in 2003 by the nonprofit organization which promotes community based solutions for the production and consumption of food and energy. Working with research, policy, consumer and grassroots communities, raises public awareness and advances innovative solutions to create an economically and environmentally viable future, and eliminate practices that are harmful to the environment and public health. For more information, please contact info@sustainabletable.org.

Credits

Director: Louis Fox
Executive Producers: Diane Hatz and Rebecca Bray
Written by: Louis Fox and Jonah Sachs
Concept by: Jonah Sachs and Louis Fox
Voices: Louis Fox
Animation: Louis Fox
Music supervision: Louis Fox

Produced by Free Range Graphics and GRACE

The Meatrix © 2003, Free Range Graphics and GRACE

Marketing Director: Diane Hatz, Sustainable Table/GRACE
Project Directors: Rebecca Bray and Diane Hatz, Sustainable Table/GRACE; Louis Fox, Free Range Graphics
Press and Media: Sustainable Table Media
Marketing Associate: Jill Peterson, Sustainable Table
Website Development & Design: Rebecca Bray, Karen Correa and Diane Hatz, Sustainable Table/GRACE

Produced in Macromedia Flash MX and Illustrator
650 width x 400 height pixels

Free Range Graphics www.freerangestudios.com
1605 Connecticut Ave NW
4th Floor
Washington DC 20009
Tel: 202.234.5613
Fax: 202.318.3037
Email: info@freerangestudios.com

www.gracelinks.org
Sustainable Table Program
215 Lexington Avenue, Suite 1001
New York, NY 10016
Tel: 212-726-9161
Fax: 212-726-9160
Email: info@sustainabletable.org

Find sustainable meat, poultry, dairy and eggs in the Eat Well Guide, www.eatwellguide.org

For more information on factory farms, visit www.factoryfarm.org
For more information on sustainable food and agriculture, visit www.sustainabletable.org
To view The Meatrix online, go to www.themeatrix.com
To take action, visit The Meatrix action pages at www.sustainabletable.org/getinvolved/

Synopsis

Created by Free Range Graphics for the GRACE’s Sustainable Table program, The Meatrix is a humorous 4-minute Flash animation that spoofs The Matrix films while drawing attention to the problems caused by factory farming.

Instead of Keanu Reeves, The Meatrix stars a young pig, Leo, who lives on a pleasant family farm... he thinks. Leo is approached by a trenchcoat-clad cow, Moopheus, who shows him the ugly truth about the way animals are raised for food today, complete with a send-up of the "stop-motion" camerawork immortalized by the Matrix. At the end of the movie, viewers are directed to an "action page" which provides additional information about factory farms and encourages consumers to support local family farmers and purchase sustainably-raised meat, poultry, dairy and eggs through the Eat Well Guide.

The Meatrix has enjoyed unprecedented success as an online advocacy movie; since its release in November 2003, The Meatrix has been screened throughout the world and has been viewed online at www.themeatrix.com by over 10 million people.