This week I watched two half-hour-long vegan documentaries, OpenDoor - The Vegan Society (1976) and Making the Connection (2010), directed by Ella Todd. They are 34 years apart, but essentially they tell the same story and would both fit into general vegan documentaries, meaning they don't focus narrowly on animal rights (such as Earthlings (2005) did), health (as What the Health (2017) did), or environment (like Eating Our Way to Extinction (2021) did), but take all these elements into one story.

Even though they are quite similar in many ways, there are also differences. The first one is rather quickly made, and it shows. Apart from what story it is telling, the film hasn't aged that well. It is very serious, while the second one has its humorous side. It is lighter in tone despite telling much the same story. Not only that, but it is also the way it is set up. The director takes the title, Making the Connection, very literally and builds up a film where everything is connected. A really well-made film. The first one is interesting for historical perspective; it is the first vegan documentary (or I think it is), but the second one is a film that I would say is a well-made film that does something with the form, and I can wholeheartedly recommend it.