THE EVOLUTION OF FOOD, THE REVOLUTION OF THOUGHT
VEGOLUTION
A CASTLE FRAME PICTURES DOCUMENTARY
The Roots of Vegolution
Vegolution is a feature-length documentary exploring the past, present, and future of our food system. With a non-graphic, story-led approach, the film begins by journeying into the Neolithic era, where new archaeological evidence suggests humans may have relied far more on plants than meat. We explore how the act of growing, not hunting, built civilisation and how bread and grain, not flesh, may have been the foundations of our earliest communities. Featuring insights from historians and archaeologists at institutions like Butser Ancient Farm, University College London, The John Innes Centre and Reading University, the past is re-examined not as a violent survival story, but as a quieter evolution of cooperation, cultivation, and nourishment.
In the present day, Vegolution travels across the UK and abroad to uncover the modern reality: a world of overconsumption, obesity, chronic disease, and ecological collapse. We speak to health professionals such as Dr. Ishani Rao, as well as food system experts and frontline voices, to understand how industrial animal agriculture is accelerating deforestation, water depletion, and greenhouse gas emissions, while also failing to nourish us. These scenes are woven with personal stories, expert interviews, and cinematic visuals that reveal a powerful truth: that plants not only sustained us in the past, but could also be key to restoring our health and environment today.
Looking forward, Vegolution asks: what happens if we don’t change? And more importantly, what happens if we do? This section explores the possible futures we face, one where our food system collapses under its own weight, and another where innovation, compassion, and plant-based solutions offer hope for the planet, for people, and for animals. This is not a film about restriction or judgment, but about possibility, and about reconnecting to something that may have been in us all along.
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Presented by Melanie Joy
Melanie Joy, PhD, is a Harvard-educated psychologist specializing in relationships, communication, and social transformation. She is the award-winning author of seven books, including the bestselling Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows, Getting Relationships Right: How to Build Resilience and Thrive in Life, Love, and Work, and How to End Injustice Everywhere. Joy is also an internationally recognized speaker and trainer who’s presented her work in fifty countries across six continents.
Joy is best known for her groundbreaking theories on the psychology of violence and nonviolence and building healthy relationships. Her analyses have helped explain why people engage in “nonrelational” behaviors—behaviors that harm other people, animals, the planet, and themselves—as well as how to change this pattern. Her work has been featured by media outlets around the world, including the New York Times, BBC, NPR, and ABC Australia. She is the eighth recipient of the Ahimsa Award—previously given to the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela—for her work on global nonviolence; and she also received both the Peter Singer Prize and the Empty Cages Prize for her work developing strategies to reduce the suffering of animals.
Joy’s mission is to help create a more relational world, in large part through raising awareness of the obstacles preventing people from interacting in ways that create a sense of mutual connection. These obstacles are both internal (psychological) and external (social), and they are a key reason why we act against our own interests and the interests of others—often without realizing that we’re doing so. With awareness, we are better able to think freely and act compassionately, to create healthier and more fulfilling relationships and a more equitable and sustainable world.
Joy is the founding president of the international organization, Beyond Carnism. Originally from Boston, Massachusetts, Joy now resides in Berlin, Germany, with her husband, Sebastian Joy.
More about Melanie at www.melaniejoy.org/
Filmed and Directed by JC Ralls
Director | Castle Frame Pictures
JC Ralls is a UK-based documentary filmmaker and founder of Castle Frame Pictures. With a background in broadcast and independent production, JC has worked with companies including Sky TV, the BBC, Screaming Eagle Productions, and Floating Harbour Studios. Over the last several years, he’s specialised in documentaries and promotional campaigns that centre around sustainability, travel, and political movements.
In 2018, JC directed his first television commercial in the United States, and later collaborated with Floating Harbour Studios on Emission Impossible, a documentary following the development of the world’s first hydrogen-electric, retrofitted aircraft. He has also worked alongside the UK Green Party, supporting their election campaigns with visual storytelling that highlights solutions over fear.
JC has not eaten meat in over 20 years and is now directing Vegolution, his first feature-length documentary, as a way to explore and promote a plant-based future. Through a mix of science, history, human stories, and hopeful solutions, Vegolution aims to unpack how we eat, why we eat that way, and what’s at stake if we don’t evolve.
He began his career making short films—most of which he’s now trying very hard to erase from the internet out of embarrassment and continues to bring a blend of humour, honesty, and cinematic storytelling to his work. His other work can be found at:
www.castleframepictures.com
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