Award-winning actress Wendy Morgan’s international career spans 43 years, working alongside some of the most renowned names in the industry. Her film work includes the role of Mollie in John Schlesinger’s Yanks (Richard Gere) for which she received the Evening Standard Most Promising Newcomer Award; Mrs. Lowry and Son (Vanessa Redgrave); The Reverend and Mrs. Simpson (Julian Glover, Game of Thrones) set for release in 2022; 84 Charing X Road (Anthony Hopkins); Edie (Dame Sheila Hancock); The Mirror Crack’d (Elizabeth Taylor, Angela Landsbury, Tony Curtis); and Birth of the Beatles.
Now in her directorial debut of a powerful docudrama, Mercy, she unveils the truth behind the devastation caused by animal agriculture, told though the eyes of a pig named Mercy and those involved with and trapped in the factory farming industry. The film has been an official selection at many festivals, and will be featured at the 12th annual Awareness Film Festival in Los Angeles on October 31st. Director Wendy Morgan and Maria Austin (who plays the character of Mercy in the film) have been invited to attend the festival for the screening and to participate on the panel Only One Earth/Activism. (They are awaiting travel waivers from the US Embassy in London, so we are hopeful these will be granted prior to the festival.)
Wendy, What led you to this story?
I saw an investigation footage from Animal Aid in 2011. They had done an investigation into nine slaughterhouses in the UK. Eight out of the nine were found to be abusing the animals. One of those was near to where I live. As more and more people heard about this investigation via YouTube and social media, they would gather at the gates to raise awareness to the public of the cruelty going on behind closed doors as the case went to court. It was a bit of a landmark I believe using the footage as evidence. I was very affected by what I learned. It was the catalyst in me going vegan. It also compelled me to do something. I am an actor by profession. I have been in films but not made my own. I have not written a screenplay before. My inner torment at what I had witnessed, drove me to write and to make the film. Film and drama were the mediums that seemed the best way for me to add my contribution to the global discussion about these matters.
Mercy is your directorial debut. Why was this story so important to tell?
Yes, being an actor, I had not directed before so it was out of my comfort zone. But then I would think of what was happening inside slaughterhouses, and there is zero comfort there so I kept going.
At the time, I began writing, people were aware of these matters but not to the extent they are today. To go vegan was almost radical and a talking point whereas today it is mainstream which is wonderful. I had hoped when writing and producing the film that by the time I ever got it made (it was ten years from conception!) that perhaps these things would be obsolete. But sadly, that is not the case. Still there are slaughterhouses and factory farming – animal agriculture. The more I delved into the project – initially it was just for the animals that I began – I discovered about the effect of factory farming not only to the animals but upon our planet, the environment; upon our health; and upon the workers within the industry. The deeper in I got the more urgent the making of this became. To continue the conversation. To maybe let one more person, know what is going on and how that affects everything.
Tell us about the film and why it was important to be told through the eyes of a pig named, Mercy.
The footage I saw was about pigs. Outside that slaughterhouse – as a truck stopped – I met a pig through the bars – we looked into each other’s eyes. I filmed this on my phone. I made the connection. The pig was moments from death. The innocent bewilderment in those eyes. I spoke to the pig and tried to soothe them. I asked a friend what should we call them, and my friend said “Mercy” and then the truck drove into the slaughterhouse and Mercy was gone. I heard the screams of that truck load of pigs when they were inside and dreaded to think what they were going through. This experience and the footage stayed with me. That same piece of footage is in the film. This young beautiful pig will never be forgotten. This haunted me and so I began to write. Billions of pigs are killed every day, every second. Each one an individual – like Mercy. So, it is seen through the eyes of a pig, but this could be about any species: Chicken, Cow, Sheep, Fish… all of them suffer, all of them live short crowded unnatural lives and are killed without mercy.
Official trailer (warning: disturbing content)
Share the link between animal agriculture and climate change; the link between factory farming, pandemics and zoonotic diseases which are told in your film.
I am no expert, but the little I have learned tells me even in my most basic understanding that – animal agriculture even by the scale of it – is taking up land that could be used for arable land; the amount of animals and their waste and the methane gas produced is disturbing the natural environment and the structure of soil and the ozone layer. the link between factory farming, pandemics and zoonotic diseases which are told in your film. Again, no expert but my basic understanding is this: animals of different species, held captive and stressed in unnatural environments such as wet farms – are breeding grounds for disease. Similarly, farmed animals from different herds, held captive and stressed in unnatural environments are also breeding grounds for disease – add to that, the cocktail of antibiotics that are given to all of the animals within factory farming; the diseases that then mutate making them resistant to anti-biotic: so, factory farming is a breeding ground for pandemics on a scale that could perhaps be even worse than what we have been experiencing these last two years. It is terrifying – I wish I was an expert and could use terms and statistics but they are all out there. Look at the websites of Animal Aid; Viva! Compassion in World Farming; Animal Equality; Plant Based Treaty; or the films – Earthlings; Dominion and the new film produced by Kate Winslet Eating our Way to Extinction which I really need to see! They are all full of the information and we need to do something before it gets even worse.
Pigs are #4 in animal intelligence behind chimpanzees, dolphins, and elephants. Why was it important to have a pig as the main character?
Pigs were at the heart of the investigation I saw by Animal Aid – and one pig in particular that I made the connection with – and so it just was compelled me and what I had witness and could write about but it became apparent that this one connection was the catalyst for me going vegan but it also made me have the connection with all animals actually: so here we have a pig, but we could equally have a chicken, a lamb, a sheep, a cow, a calf, a fish: I hope that in the film we see all animals, all people – as if each character in the film represents a whole world of beings and species in all their diversity.
What challenges did you face while filming?
My technical inexperience and lack of finance were the biggest challenges. If I had found a satisfactory way to get proper finance for the film, I could have employed people to do all the things that I didn’t know how to do – namely the technical aspects vowed that I would never do anything like this again unless I could get proper finance. I did try but it is not my best skill!!! I began alone with the project writing; talking to people, then people became involved gradually and would approach me to become involved as they found out about the project. So that bit seemed easy to gather the troupes. But the edit. That was a long and steep learning curve. But I just had to learn because I had to do it. So, I did. The energy to keep momentum going over the years – ten years since the idea in 2011 and then writing, casting, getting location, props, costume, actors, set design, running around, and now postproduction, and this new phase of festival to distribution, all steep learning curves. But the tech, the edit, I think were the most challenging. Being on set, being an actor is my home, no problem!
Directing even seemed natural in this context – because I know my subject. We had great weather when we filmed, one hot July in 2016. On my friend’s farm, Steven’s farm. Which is now an arable farm and all who work on it pretty much vegan! So, it was a great environment and we had pretty much the run of it for three weeks and another day in 2017 for pick-ups. So actually, filming was pretty smooth. Although a day’s footage was entirely lost (tech again) hence the pick-ups in 2017.
There were nights when I sat at my computer and it crashed and the edit seemed lost and I was up nearly all night trying and failing to retrieve it. Living with the edit on my hard drive was a constant worry in case it was lost or damaged or in case the hard drive became corrupted. I found lots of friends who gave me tech support and they were and are angels. Everyone who has been a part of this film is incredible, truly – it really has been and is a labor of love.
As our world teeters on the precipice of ecological destruction, what is your mission for this film?
I would like it – if Mercy could make its way to nestle amidst a collection of films whose mission is to enlighten, to move, to raise questions, begin or continue conversations, to awaken, to affirm, to connect, to give the viewer a powerful and emotional experience which opens them perhaps to another way of looking at things – through a different lens.
Perhaps the way Mercy is telling this story, may intrigue someone to watch because it also uses actors to tell the story, in a drama. Almost allegorically. Someone once called it a “soliloquy for the damned.” Someone called it a poem. I am not sure what to call it but that it is a call from the heart, from my heart, from the hearts of all who are no longer here, that if we could help transition from animal agriculture to a plant based culture – we would all be happier and healthier – Animal, Human, and Planet. What is not to love about that?
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https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5873706/