During my discussion with Robin he brought up a documentary entitled Blood of the Beast. This came about due to my original idea of documenting the daily lives of those working in an abattoir. Robin discussed this as an example that dealt with such a heavy topic in a way that the film didn’t just utilise the shock value of gore. Instead the film focuses on the abattoir as a means to explore the daily life in a small French town, revealing how essential the jobs such a place provides. Although I had decided against following the abattoir idea myself I felt quite compelled to check out the film.
It didn’t take much of the film to make me realise how difficult it would have been to film in an abattoir, or even butchers. The slaughter on the screen was relentless but was so shocking was the emotionless professionalism it was carried out with. Each slaughtered however graphic and difficult to watch, those carrying them out did so with respect for the animal and their profession. It was quite bizarre to watch a highly organised and efficient workplace slaughter animals en masse. I guess I must be thankful that Franju shot the film in black and white. If the endless puddles of blood had been a deep crimson red I don’t think I would have been able to continue watching. With this realisation, I knew that there would have been no way I could have tackled such subject material for my own project.

During my viewing I struggle to stop myself from trying to analyse the point at which the animal become purely meat. Life often lingered within the animals as the blood rushing through their bodies caused legs to buck uncontrolled. Supposedly the animals felt no pain and were technically dead but I felt ill watching as the carcasses writhed about.
Reading back what I’ve written it’s interesting to see how my labels have shifted from animals to carcasses. It’s as if the act of the killing the creatures isn’t the ending of their live but merely the creation of a food product. They are separate entities, the animal and the meat. The only thing linking them is the razor sharp blade of a knife.

What I found fascinating was the intricacies of each different process depending upon the animal and instrument of slaughter. The professionalism and skill of the workers, particularly under such circumstances, was astounding. The violence was never aggressive or brutal in its nature.