Meatwork (ATOM Study Guide)

Meatwork goes past the shock of the 'first kill' to understand the reality of what it means to be a meat-eater in the modern world. Maddie, a young city-dwelling meat-eater, has gone further than most to find out – she's killed a chicken with her grandmother – but the closest she usually gets to the animals she eats is the butcher's shop. Would she have eaten them if she had to kill them all? And could she convince herself she cared about them if she did?

There's only one way to find out. She brazenly persuades a country abattoir to employ her for five weeks, capturing the experience on film. It's enough time to learn the basics of skinning, gutting and slaughtering – working her way through lamb, beef and pork. But first, she has to earn her stripes hauling guts and sweeping poo, and win the respect of the men that work there.

They are genuine characters: Steve, who sings opera while cleaving carcasses; Shaun, a 21-year-old with 'love' and 'hate' tattooed across knuckles; Jimmy, a doting father; Nathan, who grew up in an abattoir; and his dad David, the abattoir owner, who encourages Maddie with paternal warmth.

As Maddie's relationship with them deepens and she gets closer to the 'kill-box', they reveal their thoughts on life and death, and how to deal with killing for a job. She continues past her first slaughter, teased and encouraged by the guys, and gains rare insight into the psychological and physical processes of industrial killing. She examines whether she can maintain a respect for, or even acknowledge, the lives that end there, and challenges the workers' acceptance of the job – questioning what effect it might be having on them and her.

The sheer number of kills starts to weigh on her, and in her final days at the abattoir she faces the rowdiest and most resistant animals yet. She starts to wonder what the difference really is between being a meat-eater and a meatworker. There's certainly a deep divide between the meat-eating Maddie who first walked into the abattoir and the person she's becoming now.

Curriculum links
This documentary deals with complex ethical questions and contains graphic content in relation to the treatment of animals. As such, it is advised that it be used only at senior levels (Years 11–12). The curriculum areas that this documentary could be related to include:

• Philosophy
• Religion and Society
• English