Unlocking the Cage

2016 American film

January 25, 2016 (2016-01-25) (Sundance)

Running time

91 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglish

Unlocking the Cage is a 2016 American documentary film about the work of the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) and lawyer Steven Wise's efforts to grant limited legal personhood rights to chimpanzees, whales, dolphins and elephants. It was directed by D. A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus. It was the final film directed by Pennebaker before his death in August 2019.

A. O. Scott of The New York Times praised the film, writing that "D. A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus bring their relaxed, acute observational style of filmmaking to bear on a thorny tangle of legal and philosophical questions. Part courtroom drama, part rumination on what separates human beings from other animals, the film is above all a sympathetic portrait of an advocate...it is hard to watch Unlocking the Cage without being somewhat swayed by the arguments — or at least impressed by the sincerity — of Steven Wise."^[1]

The Guardian called it an "exemplary animal rights documentary", and that it "presents some fascinating legal and ethical issues".^[2] However, Variety's critic, Peter Debruge, accused Wise of "trying to trick a series of New York state judges into granting chimpanzees the same rights as humans" and called his efforts a "publicity stunt."^[3]

References

^ Scott, A.O. (24 May 2016). "Review: In 'Unlocking the Cage,' a Struggle to Raise the Legal Status of Chimpanzees". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
^ Felperin, Leslie (16 June 2016). "Unlocking the Cage review – exemplary animal rights documentary". The Guardian. Retrieved 2016-09-09.
^ Debruge, Peter (8 February 2016). "'Unlocking the Cage' Review: Legal Battle Shows Animals Are People Too". Variety. Retrieved 2016-09-09.

External links

Official website
Unlocking the Cage at First Run Features
Unlocking the Cage on HBO
Unlocking the Cage at IMDb

D. A. Pennebaker

Director

Dont Look Back (1967)
Monterey Pop (1968)
One P.M. (1970)
Original Cast Album: Company (1970)
Sweet Toronto (also Keep On Rockin', 1971)
Town Bloody Hall (1979)
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1979)
Jimi Plays Monterey (1986)
Shake! Otis at Monterey (1987)
101 (1989)
The War Room (1993)
Woodstock Diary (1994)
Moon Over Broadway (1997)
Keep On Rockin' (2000)
Down from the Mountain (2000)
Elaine Stritch: At Liberty (2002)
Assume the Position with Mr. Wuhl (2006)
65 Revisited (2007)
Kings of Pastry (2009)
Unlocking the Cage (2016)

Producer

Startup.com (2001)
Al Franken: God Spoke (2006)

Cinematographer

Wild 90 (1968)
Beyond the Law (1968)
Maidstone (1970)
Eat the Document (1972)
Janis (additional, 1974)

Editor

Primary (1960)

Chris Hegedus (wife)
Up Your Legs Forever

Animal rights

Topics (overviews, concepts, issues, cases)

Overviews

Concepts

Issues

Animal agriculture	Animal product Battery cage Bile bear Chick culling Concentrated animal feeding operation Fish farming Fur farming Fur trade Insect farming Intensive animal farming Intensive pig farming Livestock Poultry farming Slaughterhouse Wildlife farming Working animal Feedback (pork industry) Foam depopulation Ventilation shutdown
Animal testing	Alternatives to animal testing Animal testing on non-human primates Animal testing regulations Labcorp Drug Development Great ape research ban Green Scare Huntingdon Life Sciences Model organism Nafovanny Operation Backfire Vivisection
Animal welfare	Animal euthanasia Cruelty to animals Pain in animals Pain in amphibians Pain in cephalopods Pain in crustaceans Pain in fish Pain in invertebrates Pain and suffering in laboratory animals Welfare of farmed insects
Fishing	Commercial fishing Fishing bait Recreational fishing
Wild animals	Culling wildlife Hare coursing Hunting International primate trade Ivory trade Predation problem Seal hunting Wild animal suffering Wildlife management
Other	Abandoned pets Animal sacrifice Animal slaughter Animal trial Animals in sport Live food Live export

Cases

Methodologies

Observances

Advocates (academics, writers, activists)

Academics
and writers

Contemporary

Historical

Activists

Contemporary

Historical

Movement (groups, parties)

Groups

Contemporary

Historical

Animal Defence and Anti-Vivisection Society
Canadian Anti-Vivisection Society
Humanitarian League (1891–1919)
Oxford Group

Parties

Animal Justice Party (Australia)
Animal Politics EU (Europe)
Animal Protection Party of Canada (Canada)
Animal Justice Party of Finland (Finland)
Animals' Party (Sweden)
Animalist Movement (Italy)
Animalist Party Against Mistreatment of Animals (Spain)
DierAnimal (Belgium)
Human Environment Animal Protection (Germany)
Italian Animalist Party (Italy)
Party for the Animals (Netherlands)
People Animals Nature (Portugal)
V-Partei³ (Germany)

Activism

Animal Rights National Conference

Media (books, films, periodicals, albums)

Books

On Abstinence from Eating Animals (3rd century)
Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes (1824)
The Rights of Animals (1838)
Animals' Rights (1892)
Evolutional Ethics and Animal Psychology (1897)
The Universal Kinship (1906)
The New Ethics (1907)
Animals, Men and Morals (1971)
Animal Liberation (1975)
The Case for Animal Rights (1983)
Morals, Reason, and Animals (1987)
Zoos and Animal Rights (1993)
Animals, Property, and the Law (1995)
The Lives of Animals (1999)
Eternal Treblinka (2001)
Do Animals Have Rights? (2005)
Striking at the Roots (2008)
An American Trilogy (2009)
An Introduction to Animals and Political Theory (2010)
Animal Rights Without Liberation (2012)
Political Animals and Animal Politics (2014)
Animal (De)liberation (2016)
Sentientist Politics (2018)
Wild Animal Ethics (2020)
Animal Ethics in the Wild (2022)
Making a Stand for Animals (2022)

Films

The Animals Film (1981)
A Cow at My Table (1998)
Shores of Silence (2000)
The Witness (2000)
Meet Your Meat (2002)
Legally Blonde 2 (2003)
The Meatrix (2003)
Peaceable Kingdom (2004)
Earthlings (2005)
Behind the Mask (2006)
Your Mommy Kills Animals (2007)
The Cove (2009)
Peaceable Kingdom: The Journey Home (2009)
Forks Over Knives (2011)
Vegucated (2011)
An Apology to Elephants (2013)
Speciesism: The Movie (2013)
The Ghosts in Our Machine (2013)
Unlocking the Cage (2016)
Dominion (2018)
Seaspiracy (2021)

Periodicals

Journals	Animal Sentience Between the Species Cahiers antispécistes Etica & Animali Journal of Animal Ethics Relations. Beyond Anthropocentrism The Animals' Defender
Magazines	Arkangel Bite Back Muutoksen kevät No Compromise Satya

Albums

Animal Liberation (1987)
Tame Yourself (1991)
Manifesto (2008)
Salvation of Innocents (2014)
Onward to Freedom (2014)

Fairs and exhibitions

Holocaust on your Plate (2003)

Category ( 138 )

HBO documentaries

Former

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