A Brief Life is a poetic homage to a farmer and the cows he raises. Shot over the course of a year on a small farm in rural Ontario, it follows the same cow through the cycle of the seasons from hours after its birth until it is sold as meat. The film is concerned with documenting an entire process from beginning to end and allowing the viewer to watch it unfold. A Brief Life is not an anti-meat film but results from the concern that by living in an urban environment we can become cut off from where our food comes from.Filmed on a small farm and abattoir, rather than in a huge stockyard and highly mechanised farm, it shows a lifestyle the is still very much in touch with nature as people live off the land for subsistence. Shot in black and white, the film has the feel of a period piece which carefully documents something historical.
