Moby on Hot Docs-Premiering Activist Doc ‘Rowdy Girl,’ Clip Released (EXCLUSIVE)
variety.comJennie Punter Five years ago, New York-based filmmaker Jason Goldman was researching a possible documentary about animal sanctuaries and heard about Renee King-Sonnen, who had gone vegan a few years earlier, transformed her husband’s Texas beef cattle ranch into Rowdy Girl Sanctuary, and started advocacy work that received regular national media attention.
In a clip (see below) released in advance of the world premiere of Goldman’s “Rowdy Girl” at Hot Docs this weekend, King-Sonnen succinctly lays out the origin of her life-changing decision to visitors seated at her kitchen table: “I was seeing how my actions were contributing to violence and cruelty … I started having real issues that I was loving some animals and eating others.” It’s the kind of sit-down-and-get-real conversation she’s been having for more than a decade and that has caught the attention of influential like-minded people such as music innovator Moby, who had previously discovered King-Sonnen’s active voice on social media, and whose Little Walnut (“Punk Rock Vegan Movie,” “Moby Doc”) boarded “Rowdy Girl” as executive producer at an early stage. “My hope is people will see both the vulnerability and emotional complexity of the animals in ‘Rowdy Girl,’ but also recognize Renee as the inspiring and fascinating Texan that she is,” Moby recently told Variety.
His company ethos, he said, is to use various media to address activist issues in creative, non-didactic ways, and “Rowdy Girl” was a perfect fit.
Goldman, who worked for the legendary Maysles Films during an evolutionary period for the company in the 2000s, wanted to employ an observational style of filmmaking to create a cinematic vision of the animal rights movement that would be accessible to
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