Documentary
43 min.
$15 + s/h
The Witness
About the Film
Online Preview
Reviews & Press
Endorsements
Broadcasts
Film Festivals & Awards
Comments from Link TV Viewers:
"WOW! It is great to see life changing television. I just watched The Witness about animal cruelty and it was a whole new experience. Not only this show, but the whole attitude of the producers are great. They know people and nature are more important than companies and war, or that is the feeling I get. I love it."
"I have never seen anything like this before... This documentary changed the way I think. Thank you for showing it, and keep up the great work."
"I just wanted to say thank you for the wonderful film. My husband and I saw The Witness on Saturday and found it very moving. By the next morning I was already emailing some of our local government officials to protest trapping of squirrels in one of the Los Angeles area parks."
"I just finished viewing the 4am EST showing of 'The Witness', and just wanted to express a heartfelt THANK YOU for having the guts to show this!! I've never watched LinkTV before, but am now hooked. I've been waiting for years for a TV channel that had the courage to program shows that actually told us the TRUTH about what's really going on in our world."
"I was so incredibly moved by this movie. Although I have been an animal person for many years, and was aware of all of the horrible suffering so may of them have in their lives, it was great to be reminded of the good one person can do, and that we are all responsible for speaking for those who can't... I had been a vegetarian for many years but had recently started eating chicken again. No more. The Witness put and end to that."
"This is one of the most superb documentaries I have seen in a long time. I only wish this could be made mandatory viewing in every school and every home around the world... Thank you for your courage in showing this important piece of work."
"Thank you for airing 'The Witness'. It is one of the most powerful programs I have seen in a very long time."
Link TV's Post-Broadcast Discussion
of THE WITNESS
with Station Manager Wendy Hanamura
and Link TV Producer Toni Whiteman
Wendy: You’ve been watching The Witness, dedicated to one woman’s best friend, Mo, who died last summer. I’m Wendy Hanamura. And joining me here in the studios of Link TV is my fellow producer, Toni Whiteman, Mo’s best friend. Thanks for being with us Toni.
Toni: Thanks Wendy.
Wendy: Now, we asked you to join us Toni because of course this film, The Witness, was something that you lobbied for hard and long to get on Link TV. Why do you think it’s so important for people to see this film?
Toni: Well, there were a couple of things about this film that really struck me when I saw it the first time. And one of them is Eddie, and the journey that he goes on, through this terrible experience that he has where he’s beaten practically to death, left on the street, and he survives. So, that’s the beginning of his journey. So that was one thing. But the other thing is, you know, you watch this film and you see how horribly these animals are treated, whether they’re in confinement centers on factory farms, confined in these fur trade factories where they’re executed and stripped of their fur...
Wendy: And you thought this was a message that our viewers, of Link TV, really needed to see.
Toni: I think people need to see this. I think people --
Wendy: This is really hard to look at.
Toni: It’s very hard.
Wendy: People don’t want to see this.
Toni: I have seen this film now four times and I’m just devastated at the end.
Wendy: I think, even in your fifth time, as you watch it with me, I mean, you’re still very moved and yet --
Toni: I’m so moved.
Wendy: Sometimes it’s important, I guess -- we believe at Link TV, certainly -- to see and watch things that are difficult.
Toni: That are hard to see. And this is -- brings me to another reason why I was really taken by this film. And... well, through the story of the film you meet Eddie and you see his transformation, and there’s a wonderful transformation that takes place and he walks you through that. But at the end of the film, you see the transformation in the people on the street. People who are walking along, very busy, just before Christmas, they have a million things to do -- and they stop, and they're taken aback, and they’re -- they, right then, at that moment, are being connected to something that is disconnected. And they’re touched. And they’re compassionate -- so the film really ends in a beautiful place where we see human compassion on all those faces of all those people who see Eddie’s films that he’s showing inside of his van.
Wendy: And also a very inspiring place because we see one man’s… taking a stand, doing something, whatever was in his power to do he’s decided to do, to try to prevent some of the cruelty that goes on every day to animals without our even realizing it.
Toni: Without even realizing it. And that’s what he wanted people -- not to be a bystander.
Wendy: Right.
Toni: To say, this may be happening in the world, but it’s not happening because of me. And in fact it may be happening less because of me. And when you meet Eddie in the beginning, you know, he thinks he’s going to get a date, so he takes home this cat, to baby sit this cat. And it’s the first time that he’s ever really had an encounter with an animal. And, you know, then he eventually gets his own cat because he begins to realize, these are really wonderful creatures, they follow you around the house, they have a relationship with you, and he begins to care. And that’s what his journey is. It’s really a journey of compassion and kindness. And we see him waking up, you know, he says 'a miracle is a change in perception.' And this is a tough New York City kid, you know, who’s become aware of things that he never knew to think about before. And --
Wendy: So Toni, for Eddie it began with his one relationship with one a cat. Now for you… you had a relationship of many years and great depth with your dog, Mo.
Toni: Many years.
Wendy: Tell us about Mo.
Toni: Well, Mo, you know, when Mo came into my life I said, you know, I can’t have a dog, I work 15 hours a day, and I live on the beach and I don’t want all that sand in my house. And so I said I’d take her for a week. Well, I had her for 13 years. But during the course of that time, what started out, me thinking I’m doing a favor to this little animal, really completely turned around. And I realized that this animal brought to my life things that were missing. She reconnected me to some of the most important things about being human. And I got that from an animal because, well, they’re always in the moment. They take you places you wouldn’t go. They love you. They protect you. And they bring you into nature in a way that… You know, we’d go on a hike, and I would get there, my head full of conversations, but Mo would suddenly turn into this real creature of the wilderness, completely tuned in to every sound, every thing, and she would run around and… she was just beautiful. And after a while, I too would come out of my head and really be in a place of nature and -- this is it, they’re like emissaries. Our pets are emissaries from the animal kingdom and they really teach us.
Wendy: Even in her last days, Mo taught you a lot about dying and about death. Did she not?
Toni: She did. She taught me how to prepare for death, the death of someone that you love. And I could see in her that she really did not want to leave me, because her responsibility in life, which she took very seriously, was to protect me. She was my companion, and we had gone everywhere together for 13 years. And... I think she felt like she was, you know, not going to be around to do the job she was suppose to do. And it was on her last day that she was really suffering and I just said, 'you can go.' And she did. And then she still continued to teach me.
Wendy: Teach you what?
Toni: Well, she taught me how things live on with you. And how even though they’re no longer in the present form, everything that they've taught you stays with you. And the memory of joy that she brought into my life, I still have that. And then she taught me more then that. When I no longer had her -- I no longer had one dog -- well then I had all the dogs in the world. And that’s when I became really interested in learning about what was happening to animals, and how we can better protect them. And also I’ve learned that people are really disconnected from -- in the same way that many of our programs during this pledge break have been about establishing that reconnection with nature, with our environment, that all of these things are so essential. And yet we’ve turned all these things that are so important to us as human beings into products. Every thing has become a product and a commodity.
Wendy: In fact, you also put together the shows that we will see in this special, 'The Food Revolution.'
Toni: Right.
Wendy: And although they seem to be about the food on your plate, they’re also very much about animals. Are they not?
Toni: They are about animals. They… well, again, they’re about major, huge corporations turning living beings into commodities. Manufacturing… trying to change the way things were meant to be by gene splicing and trying to modify them so they better fit in to these factories that we want to have in order to mass-produce meat and vegetables as… as products but not as things in their own right. I mean, of course, vegetables we will always farm, but even to turn them into --
Wendy: Right. So we see the genetic engineering of salmon to grow bigger and cows to be heavier, and all for our own consumption, but at what cost? Not only to the animals, but of course, to ourselves as well, as we tinker with nature to produce the food on our plate. That’s what's coming up that you have produced for Link TV. You know, I have to say that this is what makes Link TV so different from all the other networks. That we will take a whole night and devote it to 'The Food Revolution,' to genetic engineering, to shows like The Witness -- shows that nobody else has ever shown on national television. Too controversial. Too many fur manufacturers, and fashion manufacturers, and grain producers, and big companies to offend.
Well, Link TV is independent, we’re non-commercial, and we don’t have to worry about offending those folks. So we can bring you what we think -- what people like Toni think -- are important shows. This is a network where one person can make a difference, and tonight that person is Toni Whiteman.
If you would like to thank LinkTV for airing The Witness, you may do so here.
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The Witness
About the Film
Online Preview
Reviews & Press
Endorsements
Broadcasts
Film Festivals & Awards
| Comments from Link TV Viewers:
"WOW! It is great to see life changing television. I just watched The Witness about animal cruelty and it was a whole new experience. Not only this show, but the whole attitude of the producers are great. They know people and nature are more important than companies and war, or that is the feeling I get. I love it." "I have never seen anything like this before... This documentary changed the way I think. Thank you for showing it, and keep up the great work." "I just wanted to say thank you for the wonderful film. My husband and I saw The Witness on Saturday and found it very moving. By the next morning I was already emailing some of our local government officials to protest trapping of squirrels in one of the Los Angeles area parks." "I just finished viewing the 4am EST showing of 'The Witness', and just wanted to express a heartfelt THANK YOU for having the guts to show this!! I've never watched LinkTV before, but am now hooked. I've been waiting for years for a TV channel that had the courage to program shows that actually told us the TRUTH about what's really going on in our world." "I was so incredibly moved by this movie. Although I have been an animal person for many years, and was aware of all of the horrible suffering so may of them have in their lives, it was great to be reminded of the good one person can do, and that we are all responsible for speaking for those who can't... I had been a vegetarian for many years but had recently started eating chicken again. No more. The Witness put and end to that." "This is one of the most superb documentaries I have seen in a long time. I only wish this could be made mandatory viewing in every school and every home around the world... Thank you for your courage in showing this important piece of work." "Thank you for airing 'The Witness'. It is one of the most powerful programs I have seen in a very long time." |
Link TV's Post-Broadcast Discussion
of THE WITNESS
with Station Manager Wendy Hanamura
and Link TV Producer Toni Whiteman
Wendy: You’ve been watching The Witness, dedicated to one woman’s best friend, Mo, who died last summer. I’m Wendy Hanamura. And joining me here in the studios of Link TV is my fellow producer, Toni Whiteman, Mo’s best friend. Thanks for being with us Toni.
Toni: Thanks Wendy.
Wendy: Now, we asked you to join us Toni because of course this film, The Witness, was something that you lobbied for hard and long to get on Link TV. Why do you think it’s so important for people to see this film?
Toni: Well, there were a couple of things about this film that really struck me when I saw it the first time. And one of them is Eddie, and the journey that he goes on, through this terrible experience that he has where he’s beaten practically to death, left on the street, and he survives. So, that’s the beginning of his journey. So that was one thing. But the other thing is, you know, you watch this film and you see how horribly these animals are treated, whether they’re in confinement centers on factory farms, confined in these fur trade factories where they’re executed and stripped of their fur...
Wendy: And you thought this was a message that our viewers, of Link TV, really needed to see.
Toni: I think people need to see this. I think people --
Wendy: This is really hard to look at.
Toni: It’s very hard.
Wendy: People don’t want to see this.
Toni: I have seen this film now four times and I’m just devastated at the end.
Wendy: I think, even in your fifth time, as you watch it with me, I mean, you’re still very moved and yet --
Toni: I’m so moved.
Wendy: Sometimes it’s important, I guess -- we believe at Link TV, certainly -- to see and watch things that are difficult.
Toni: That are hard to see. And this is -- brings me to another reason why I was really taken by this film. And... well, through the story of the film you meet Eddie and you see his transformation, and there’s a wonderful transformation that takes place and he walks you through that. But at the end of the film, you see the transformation in the people on the street. People who are walking along, very busy, just before Christmas, they have a million things to do -- and they stop, and they're taken aback, and they’re -- they, right then, at that moment, are being connected to something that is disconnected. And they’re touched. And they’re compassionate -- so the film really ends in a beautiful place where we see human compassion on all those faces of all those people who see Eddie’s films that he’s showing inside of his van.
Wendy: And also a very inspiring place because we see one man’s… taking a stand, doing something, whatever was in his power to do he’s decided to do, to try to prevent some of the cruelty that goes on every day to animals without our even realizing it.
Toni: Without even realizing it. And that’s what he wanted people -- not to be a bystander.
Wendy: Right.
Toni: To say, this may be happening in the world, but it’s not happening because of me. And in fact it may be happening less because of me. And when you meet Eddie in the beginning, you know, he thinks he’s going to get a date, so he takes home this cat, to baby sit this cat. And it’s the first time that he’s ever really had an encounter with an animal. And, you know, then he eventually gets his own cat because he begins to realize, these are really wonderful creatures, they follow you around the house, they have a relationship with you, and he begins to care. And that’s what his journey is. It’s really a journey of compassion and kindness. And we see him waking up, you know, he says 'a miracle is a change in perception.' And this is a tough New York City kid, you know, who’s become aware of things that he never knew to think about before. And --
Wendy: So Toni, for Eddie it began with his one relationship with one a cat. Now for you… you had a relationship of many years and great depth with your dog, Mo.
Toni: Many years.
Wendy: Tell us about Mo.
Toni: Well, Mo, you know, when Mo came into my life I said, you know, I can’t have a dog, I work 15 hours a day, and I live on the beach and I don’t want all that sand in my house. And so I said I’d take her for a week. Well, I had her for 13 years. But during the course of that time, what started out, me thinking I’m doing a favor to this little animal, really completely turned around. And I realized that this animal brought to my life things that were missing. She reconnected me to some of the most important things about being human. And I got that from an animal because, well, they’re always in the moment. They take you places you wouldn’t go. They love you. They protect you. And they bring you into nature in a way that… You know, we’d go on a hike, and I would get there, my head full of conversations, but Mo would suddenly turn into this real creature of the wilderness, completely tuned in to every sound, every thing, and she would run around and… she was just beautiful. And after a while, I too would come out of my head and really be in a place of nature and -- this is it, they’re like emissaries. Our pets are emissaries from the animal kingdom and they really teach us.
Wendy: Even in her last days, Mo taught you a lot about dying and about death. Did she not?
Toni: She did. She taught me how to prepare for death, the death of someone that you love. And I could see in her that she really did not want to leave me, because her responsibility in life, which she took very seriously, was to protect me. She was my companion, and we had gone everywhere together for 13 years. And... I think she felt like she was, you know, not going to be around to do the job she was suppose to do. And it was on her last day that she was really suffering and I just said, 'you can go.' And she did. And then she still continued to teach me.
Wendy: Teach you what?
Toni: Well, she taught me how things live on with you. And how even though they’re no longer in the present form, everything that they've taught you stays with you. And the memory of joy that she brought into my life, I still have that. And then she taught me more then that. When I no longer had her -- I no longer had one dog -- well then I had all the dogs in the world. And that’s when I became really interested in learning about what was happening to animals, and how we can better protect them. And also I’ve learned that people are really disconnected from -- in the same way that many of our programs during this pledge break have been about establishing that reconnection with nature, with our environment, that all of these things are so essential. And yet we’ve turned all these things that are so important to us as human beings into products. Every thing has become a product and a commodity.
Wendy: In fact, you also put together the shows that we will see in this special, 'The Food Revolution.'
Toni: Right.
Wendy: And although they seem to be about the food on your plate, they’re also very much about animals. Are they not?
Toni: They are about animals. They… well, again, they’re about major, huge corporations turning living beings into commodities. Manufacturing… trying to change the way things were meant to be by gene splicing and trying to modify them so they better fit in to these factories that we want to have in order to mass-produce meat and vegetables as… as products but not as things in their own right. I mean, of course, vegetables we will always farm, but even to turn them into --
Wendy: Right. So we see the genetic engineering of salmon to grow bigger and cows to be heavier, and all for our own consumption, but at what cost? Not only to the animals, but of course, to ourselves as well, as we tinker with nature to produce the food on our plate. That’s what's coming up that you have produced for Link TV. You know, I have to say that this is what makes Link TV so different from all the other networks. That we will take a whole night and devote it to 'The Food Revolution,' to genetic engineering, to shows like The Witness -- shows that nobody else has ever shown on national television. Too controversial. Too many fur manufacturers, and fashion manufacturers, and grain producers, and big companies to offend.
Well, Link TV is independent, we’re non-commercial, and we don’t have to worry about offending those folks. So we can bring you what we think -- what people like Toni think -- are important shows. This is a network where one person can make a difference, and tonight that person is Toni Whiteman.
If you would like to thank LinkTV for airing The Witness, you may do so here.