GoodGeist
A podcast on sustainability, hosted by Damla Özlüer and Steve Connor, brought to you by the DNS Network. Looking at sustainability issues, communications, and featuring global guests from a wide variety of sectors such as business, NGOs and government.
GoodGeist
Animal Liberation and the Fight for Planet A, with Haru Lev
In this episode we talk to Haru Lev, an artist and activist from Korea who has just released the film 'Planet A'. Once a wanderer and now a warrior for our planet, he shares his profound transformation and the rhythmic rebellion he's orchestrating against global sustainability issues.
From being held in a London detention center to experiencing the plight of refugees in Greece, Haru's stories are not just tales of travel but powerful catalysts for change. His firsthand encounters with the dark side of animal agriculture – from a U.S. pig farm to a Los Angeles slaughterhouse – are vivid narratives that have fuelled the creation of his film "Planet A," using music and cinema to challenge animal cruelty and biodiversity loss.
Follow GoodGeist for more episodes on sustainability, communications and how creativity can help make the world a better place.
Good Geist, a podcast series on sustainability hosted by Damla Özler and Steve Connor, brought to you by the DNS Network.
Speaker 3:Hello, hello everyone, you are listening to Good Guys, the message on sustainability which is brought to you by the DNS Network, the global network of agencies dedicated to making the world a better place. And this is Damla from Mirror Agency Istanbul.
Speaker 4:And this is Steve from Creative Concern in Manchester. This podcast series explores global sustainability issues, how they're communicated and what creativity can do to make positive change happen.
Speaker 3:So in this episode we're going to talk to Haru Lev, a professional vagabond, hitchhiker and a social misfit. Haru is an activist, writer, an amazing musician and director.
Speaker 4:Definitely amazing musician. I'd never discovered the handpan properly until, uh, discovering harrow. And so harrow, in his own words, left home on a whim, realizing that he would rather starve to death than spend his life working. And while wandering the world was shocked by the scale of animal exploitation, um, and the system that humanity collectively condones ecological destruction with the causes of it, and since then he's focused his life on exposing that hidden truth. So, haru, it's absolutely amazing to meet you, and thank you so much for taking the time to talk to Damla and myself.
Speaker 5:Hi, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3:Haru, it is amazing to have you in our podcast, and let's start with your own journey. I mean being a vegan, becoming an activist and using your diverse creativity to advocate for a better future. How did this happen?
Speaker 5:Well, this is such a long story. The whole story is written in my book. Let me summary some of it. I was traveling the world, yeah, having fun. After a few months I went to UK for the first time. Yeah, I went to airport in London and somehow at the border they put me in the detention center For the first time. I could feel the true vulnerability, is it?
Speaker 4:Vulnerability, yeah.
Speaker 5:They took my passport and then they asked me to go there and sit there or open whatever they say, like take off your clothes or open your bag. I had to obey for everything and then I was totally powerless because they got all the power to do whatever. You know, that time I truly understand what is the like authority and hierarchy and violence. What is the violence and why is it bad? I got this idea through my own experience. After that my worldview changed a bit and then I started to realize.
Speaker 5:A few months later I ended up in Thessaloniki, greece. That time there was a lot of refugees coming from Afghanistan and Syria and I ended up in a vegan kitchen for homeless refugee people and there I met a lot of activists who I've never met before, like anarchy and anti-capitalistic, feminist, vegan kind of artist, kind of activist. So I also learned a lot of information about what's going on in the world. Yeah, long journey Later in the end. Well, I went to one of the biggest pig farms in the US, well, with a lot of activists, and we were like driving through the facility and it was like we were driving for like 30 minutes and we were still inside, and it was like we were driving for like 30 minutes and we were still inside. It was almost like a big city kind of amount of pigs just locked in the building and we couldn't even see inside.
Speaker 5:And later I ended up in the slaughterhouse in LA which that pigs are slaughtered. And then that was the time I was like truly blown away. How to say like wow, this is not a joke, like this is real. Someone is transported to the slaughterhouse and killed. I was there for like two hours and I saw like nine huge trucks, huge trucks going. And then I saw all of them came out empty. And then that was the point. I was like, okay, my life is not dedicated for this.
Speaker 4:No, it's a story I completely understand, haru.
Speaker 4:Once upon a time I went into a pig factory farm, too, to take some photographs, pretending to be an agricultural student, and when I was an animal rights activist as well, many, many years ago.
Speaker 4:I have to say and I don't, yeah, you never forget what you've seen in places for you, harry, and it's kind of, as you've been wandering around the world and and thinking and writing and making films and playing music that that pain and the cruelty towards animals that we call food, if you like, is happening at the same time that we're seeing a mass extinction of species across the planet, much of which is caused by that same industrial agricultural system.
Speaker 4:So do you feel that your worldview is part of um, if you like, the great extinction that humankind is bringing about, not just for animals for food, but all species? There is a wider um issue. Not that food choices aren't really important, because I've been a vegan for 33 years, but right now we're seeing like 60% of global ecosystems have been destroyed or damaged beyond repair, and a big part of that is our diet and our agriculture and, if you like, humankind is practicing speciesism, as some people might call it, across all species, not just um the animals we eat for food. So what, how do you feel about that, that sort of wider view of how we treat animals and nature on this planet?
Speaker 5:animal agriculture is definitely the leading cause of the extinction because, um, especially viral diversity wise, the just few thousand years ago humans were just maybe like 4%, I mean 1%, 2%. We were just part of the earth, not so much. But now humans and so-called domesticated animals, like livestock animals, are taking up the space of all the biodiversity Like 99%. I'm kind of focused on the animal agriculture for this reason. I definitely feel it's all connected, but I don't know how to explain by words and I think that's why I like music or movie kind of thing so let's connect this a little bit about your mo with your movie too, steve, what do you say?
Speaker 3:so you launched your movie, planet a, and the screening began all over the world. Uh, you're screening it tomorrow in istanbul and then you're gonna screen screen it in Sofia and some places in Europe too, and this is a very, very exciting journey. But Planet A is not only a film but also an album of yours. You have collaborated with many artists with that album. Can you tell us a bit more about both the album and the movie, how they came to life? Who you have collaborated with? I?
Speaker 5:made the movie Planet A. Just on the process I wanted to make the soundtrack album together. So the reason I made it like this is just, you know, I was recording. I was going like, like Steve, I went into factory farms and slaughterhouses to record something, but you know, for people there's no reason to look at it. So I wanted people to watch it, because it is what is happening right now and people don't care To show it. Not just to show it, but I wanted people to understand why that is matter to their own life. For that I wanted to use art and music to make the connection, not just logically. So I traveled around Korea and gathered a lot of musicians who want to participate in this project. It became kind of a big project and then we started making songs with various topics and then we ended up making 15 songs. So also some other animators and some filmmakers joined, so it became really collective work. Yeah, it was amazing to meet these people and like having connection. We became like a community.
Speaker 4:A community, yeah, it was great I just think about that, haru, a minute ago, when you were talking about Thessaloniki and the people at the vegan kitchen where you encountered, I think you said, vegans, activists, anti-capitalists, feminists, and I could tell Damla was thinking, hey, that's my kind of crowd, I want to hang out with them. But I think also in your film, uh, which I love, by the way, I've I've only had um kind of 24 hours to really enjoy it, so I'm just um, very quickly looking at but, um, it's got really powerful soundtrack you can tell that you've worked with lots of collaborators and and because, uh, we're we're lucky enough, damler and I, to have spoken to people from across europe and north america, but never from korea before, and it it would be lovely to to find out from you is there. Is there quite a counterculture in korea? Are there a lot of activists and people working for change in korea?
Speaker 5:actually I started my animal liberation activism in Europe and Northern America and that's one of the reasons I went to Korea to make this film. Planet A was to share this idea of what I kind of learned in Europe and stuff. But when I went there, surprisingly there was already a lot more was going on. There was already a lot more was going on. In my view. There was at least much more intersectional and very more radical movement was already happening, and also very fast. I think Korea is quite fast-changing country for some reason. I stayed three years in Korea. I kind of figured that in Asia people don't have much speaker worldwide. We already have a lot of stuff going on, but not so much chance to be international, not so much chance to be recognized in the western world somehow you found this harrow, certainly I don't know when you were in the uk, and it sounds like you had a a really awful experience of the uk.
Speaker 4:Certainly, arriving here, it sounds um, appalling and and we have a terrible government that uh created a mechanism they called the hostile environment, which I think you were experiencing there. But my positive thing I was going to say is that Korean culture is incredibly popular here in the UK and so I think potentially you know your work could carry very well, because I know that certainly for a younger group of people here in the UK, korean music in particular is incredibly powerful and they listen to it all the time, so I think there is a really strong connection there.
Speaker 3:I have a question about what you said. Steve and I, doing this podcast, met amazing people all around the world and there is some residue of what we have seen. And you, in your words, said a moment ago that you thought that in learning the animal activism and other things in European peninsula and then coming to Korea and thinking that, okay, you are bringing something new, and then realizing that the scene is already very radical and activist, especially on animal rights, but also veganism, queer community or the sustainability community Probably the progress in the Asian side or the't think it's like hard to raise voices, but okay, maybe I cannot really answer this question, but like the reason I feel that's more like kind of more radical, it's because, uh, that kind of part of the country it's like many of them experience, for example, racism.
Speaker 5:People have more experience in some struggles. I think, yeah, at least like racism towards Asians, for example. That experience makes people more easier to understand the oppression and violence. So that can be the reason I feel Korean movement sounds a little bit more radical not a little bit, but a lot and they are going really deep inside, deep into root, kind of feeling that's what I feature of.
Speaker 3:Let's go back to planet a, shall we?
Speaker 4:yeah, I was going to ask, actually, dan no, I was going to ask about Planet A, the film. It's clearly Haru, an activist film. It's also a really powerful musical film and lots of different, very, very different musical styles as well in it, which is amazing. But because it's an activist film, I think it would be really interesting to hear from you what would you like people to do in response to your film. This may be an impossible question, but what is the call to action? What change should people make?
Speaker 5:Actually, when I was making it or when I started it, I didn't have such an idea, because I usually don't have any hope or fear. I just do it what I want to do. When I finished it and when I saw it, this project was really spontaneous. I couldn't even know what it was going to be, so I just let it be one. And then when I saw it, I I just felt more like I was thinking more about activism.
Speaker 5:I wish more activists see it and then feel that they are not alone. For example, something is happening everywhere and I just wanted to give them some some power and support and that was the main thing. Or at least some people watch it and then realize that how we were living until now, this is not only the way. There can be other way and there is already people who is living like that and we can maybe choose what we want really according to how we feel by heart, not just what society tell you to do so in the movie we see a lot of artists, a lot of street protests, a lot of actually the theme songs, they the soundtrack, with a lot of artists, and also we see different kind of protests.
Speaker 3:Some of them are street protests with a very high quality of imaging and everything. Others are on-site shoots, some of them are illustrations and so on. Can you tell us a bit about the people you collaborated, because I know they're not only vegans, but maybe we can say activists that are concerned with the future of the planet. So who took place in both the album and the movie? Just anyone?
Speaker 5:who was feeling like joining, so I, when I made the proposal, I was writing like anyone who is interested in animal liberation, woman liberation, disability liberation, liberation, liberation movement and also climate change. I didn't care if artists is vegan or not. During the process they decided to be vegan artists and musicians. They decided to be vegan artists and musicians. They started joining this project and then meeting other people and then just studying a little more and then just realized that's what they want and I think that is important thing. I want to be vegan because I don't agree with all of these.
Speaker 4:Oh, harry, the, the whole issue. I remember I I was a campaigner for um vegetarianism and veganism for full time for about six years and you can talk about um, the cruelty to animals, the, the effect on the planet, um, the effect on our health and how bad it is for us, health-wise, to eat animal products, um, but one of the crazy things about being an activist um for food choices, um is because they are very cultural and they're very personal choices. It it's actually very exhausting and I remember after six years of doing it every day and then you'd go out and have dinner with people and you'd be talking about food again and you're just never talking about anything else. But this crazy thing of veganism and I remember it was really exhausting and I think eventually, um, taking much longer than you did, I came to a similar place where I realized that people have to.
Speaker 4:You can. You can shine a light on the issues, but they have to choose. You can shine a light on the issues, but they have to choose. You can't force people to do these things. It has to be a choice, otherwise, in many ways, you know you're running against the very liberation that you want to bring about in the world. So I sympathize very much. But I had a question for you about creativity. So you're wandering the world, traveling, meeting amazing people, um, and I know there's a book, there's planet a, the film, um, and, and before that, you've done a number of songs and musical performances that I've seen on youtube that are really cool, and so you are clearly somebody that wants to use creativity as part of your activism. So what role do you think creativity and art and culture has in making change happen in the world?
Speaker 5:Oh, what a big question. Let me try to answer in a different angle, maybe. For me, not just making artwork and stuff, artwork or music, but just living in a different way than other people is already creativity. Creativity you know this culture everybody eating meat and consuming dairy and egg product and in this world, to be vegan, for example, you need creativity. I think this is great chance to be creative from when I was young, like just living like other people, what doing like everybody else was feeling like my soul is dead, like just following and obeying the stuff, but like being creative. Creative is just something like really make me alive. I'm just having fun, you know, like so I've got another question.
Speaker 4:Then, haru, what are you going to do next?
Speaker 5:during this journey I just figure out some things that I want to do. But you know, I have a lot of things I want to do, but I I check three things is there something I want to do, something I can do it better than maybe others, and is this something needed? So if these three points are set, and and then I'm going, i'm'm just rotating this because if I just do one I get bored, so I'm just rotating this method. But you know, this is kind of like the same thing, just in different forms. So, yeah, I'm just enjoying this moment, creation moment. I think that is most important for me. I'm really um into sustainable activism. I wish people to start like even being vegan, being vegan or activist.
Speaker 3:I thought we start this from, from our own desire and joy so I'm doing joyful thing to, and that is creation, and so haru, we've talked a lot about the album and the movie and everything. Our listeners may be wondering what we are talking about. I'm sure they're gonna google you and then find the movie and everything, but would you recommend us to play a song from your album, and which one would you choose for us to play a song from your album, and which one would you choose for us to play for our listeners?
Speaker 5:Oh, maybe the one I just released called.
Speaker 3:Ghanaan, and can you tell us a bit about this song?
Speaker 5:Actually, I wrote this song like almost three years ago song, like almost three years ago.
Speaker 2:So Ghana is like actually the name of old name of Palestine area. I'm sorry, I was calling their names with a spray and I was so shocked that I felt like I had a life. God said I will make you a crow that eats without a seed in summer. I will make you a crow that I can't see you anymore. I'm going to fry you in the world of Isabel. I hope you'll drink the sea water of Daniel and go on a trip. Make Esther give birth to three children so that they can be born. I'm going to take the wings of the queen blow and the wind blow. I will make the wind blow and the wind blow. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:The sea was rotten and the stars that were pointing at them stood up. The clouds that were buried in the pits vibrated silently and the city was firmly looking at the horizon. Even so, I will still cut my throat at night. I will be able to make a living by putting my own weight on it. A pure priest is a priest who will bless the resurrection of sinners without any falsehood.
Speaker 4:Thank you and one last question we have for you today, um, which is we do this podcast with our network of agencies, um, that are right across europe, also with some in latin america, america, working to make a better future, and the network is called Do Not Smile, ironically because we think sustainability is something that should bring happiness into the world. So our final question for you, haru, is what thing, place or person always makes you smile.
Speaker 5:Something genuine, you know, actually istanbul I I'm feeling some people, even if we cannot communicate because I don't speak turkish, but like I can feel, like their sweetness somehow, and that, yeah, that makes me yeah, with all this conversation with lovely haru, what I take is something new, something compassionate and something genuine.
Speaker 4:Yeah, steve over to you okay, well, um, haru, it's been absolutely lovely talking to you today and can't wait to uh release this podcast so all our listeners can meet you, find out about your work, discover animal liberation, which I discovered 35 years ago. So I'm really pleased that we got a chance to talk to you today. It's been really wonderful.
Speaker 5:Me too yeah.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Thank you, Haru, and so thanks everyone who has listened to our Good Guys podcast, brought to you by the Do Not Smile network of agencies.
Speaker 4:And make sure you listen to future episodes, where we'll be talking to more amazing people about how we can work together to create a more sustainable future. So see you, damla.
Speaker 3:See you, Steve.
Speaker 1:Good Guys, good Geist, a podcast series on sustainability Hosted by Damla Özler and Steve Connor, brought to you by the DNS Network.
