A new documentary produced by former “House of Cards” star Kate Mara and focused on the pork industry promises to tell the “true story of everyday people versus corporate titans, in a battle with life or death consequences.” “I wish people could understand our health is at stake here. To raise animals in this way, puts all of us at risk,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) says in a clip from “The Smell of Money,” obtained exclusively by ITK. The Shawn Bannon-directed documentary details the story of a North Carolina town whose residents go up against a corporate hog farm that they accuse of causing deadly pollution in their community. “Everyone’s losing, except for these multinational corporations that are perverting the free market, because the BLT you buy at some fast-food restaurant doesn’t represent the true costs,” Booker, who’s been a vegan for nearly a decade, says in the film. “The true cost of that BLT is being borne by communities like in Duplin County,” says Booker, who accuses corporations of “bending the will of politics.” “Literally everyone is losing in this system: From the contract farmers, to the people that live around them, to the animals, to the food workers, future generations. Everyone is losing but these multinational corporations that are growing bigger, and stronger and have more influence than they have ever had before,” Booker says. Mara told ITK in a statement that the documentary “transcends its label as a social issue film” with a story of “a community overcoming centuries of injustice in the face of rampant corporate greed.” “It has moved me and opened my eyes to the horrific reality of the way people are being forced to live and die in America,” she said. “The Smell of Money” is being released in
Los Angeles theaters Friday and in
New York on Oct. 20.