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Filmmaker Thomas Wade Jackson had a spiritual awakening in a New York City deli, prompting him to embrace a nonviolent diet. In this documentary, he travels the world – at times with his delightful three-yar-old, Melody – to explore how the great religions look at animals and food. He finds that the principle of ahimsa, dynamic harmlessness, yoga’s first moral precept, is in virtually every wisdom tradition, but it often stops short of non-human beings. On his travels Jackson meets with spiritual luminaries who embrace reverence for life and real people looking to live with more reverence for life. Featured experts include Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Sailesh Rao, PhD, Suzy Welch, Milton Mills, MD, Armaiti May, and Bob Isaacson of Dharma Voices for Animals.

Miss Liberty is a family feature film in pre-production, written by William Melton and myself. In it, a cow escapes from a slaughterhouse in a Midwestern town, and takes refuge in the backyard of computer tech Bob Sanders. Owed money for work done at this slaughterhouse, Parnell’s, Bob seizes the cow as collateral and calls his lawyer. Because Parnell’s has a history of sketchy, even illegal, practices around both animal welfare and worker’s rights, the attorney sees a bigger case here. He contacts Patricia Levinson (aka Cow Patty), well-known for pro bono animal rights litigation in New York, where she lives, and elsewhere, to lead Bob’s defense. A colorful cast of characters – including opposing counsel, and Patty’s ex, Jason; slaughterhouse owner Jack Parnell, Sr., and his son Junior, aka Jackass; and foreman Shakespeare, a thoughtful and eloquent immigrant from Mexico who knows the business from the inside out. And the surprising ending is, well, really surprising!