The Ghosts in Our Machine

The Ghosts in Our Machine
Directed by	Liz Marshall
Produced by	Nina Beveridge Liz Marshall
Written by	Liz Marshall
Starring	Jo-Anne McArthur
Music by	Bob Wiseman
Cinematography	John Price Iris Ng Nick de Pencier Liz Marshall
Edited by	Roland Schlimme Roderick Deogrades
Production company	Ghosts Media Inc.
Distributed by	Indiecan Entertainment Films Transit BullFrog Films LizMars Productions Syndicado Virgil Films
Release date	2013
Running time	92:00 (full) 60:00 (abridged)
Country	Canada
Language	English

The Ghosts in Our Machine is a 2013 Canadian documentary film by Liz Marshall. The film follows the photojournalist and animal rights activist Jo-Anne McArthur as she photographs animals on fur farms and at Farm Sanctuary, among other places, and seeks to publish her work. The film as a whole is a plea for animal rights.

The Ghosts in Our Machine follows photojournalist and animal activist Jo-Anne McArthur. The documentary opens with images of animals and sound bites on animal rights, before McArthur introduces herself. She describes herself as a war photographer and activist, more concerned with changing the world than with art. She meets with representatives of Redux Pictures—though they are supportive, they express doubts about her work being published—and then has dinner with a group, one of whom, Martin Rowe, offers to be an editor for her photobook.

McArthur travels with an activist to a fur farm. The activist, "Marcus", explains that publishing photographs is more damaging to the fur industry than property damage, and talks about the kind of harms which can come to animals on the farms. The pair enter the facility surreptitiously, keen to leave no traces, in order to photograph the animals on the farm. McArthur looks through her photographs once they have left, focusing on photographs of injured foxes in wire cages. The pair travel to a larger facility housing mink, near which they find breeding cards linking the facility to a company from the Netherlands. They enter this farm to take photographs.

McArthur next visits Farm Sanctuary, where she and Susie Coston, the organization's director, discuss the importance of a personal connection with individual animals. The pair then travel to pick up a "spent" dairy cow and a "down" calf, later named Fanny and Sonny respectively. They take the cows to Cornell University Hospital for Animals where they receive health checks and treatment. Back at Farm Sanctuary, McArthur and Coston discuss the running of the institution before introducing Fanny and Sonny to their new homes. McArthur visits Farm Sanctuary some time later to again to photograph and write about the animals, including Fanny and Sonny.