What you told us

Over the past couple of weeks we asked people who had seen A Dairy Story in a cinema to fill in a short survey. Fifty did, from venues across the UK, from Peterhead to Brighton, some wrote just a few words, others wrote much more.

The first question was: in a word or two, how did you feel walking out? Inspired was by farm the most common, then hopeful, happy and emotional. 

A respondent from Edinburgh said:

“Very moved. Inspired. Sad thinking of the scale of the issue but grateful to The Ethical Dairy for its brilliant mission, commitment and example. Hopeful.”

And from Castle Douglas:

“Very emotional, glad that there are farmers trying to buck the trend, and promote a more humane way of dairy farming. But angry and frustrated that so many dairy units in the UK are intensive.”

We asked what the best part of the screening was. For a lot of people it was the cows. “Seeing calves jumping like lambs in a field with their mums.” “Seeing the calves reunited with their Mums after milking and frolicking in the fields.” “Hearing the cows being described as having their own personalities.” For others it was the Q&A, or the room itself. 

From Henley:

“It felt quite special to look around at the other people who’d come, many clearly very knowledgeable, and see that there are other people that care.”

We also asked about the cinema. More than half of the people who replied had never been to that venue before. Seven in ten don’t usually see documentaries in a cinema; for eighteen of them this was the first. Nine in ten said they would go back to the venue for another film. Several added a note for the programmer. “Thank you for taking the risk of showing it.” “It was refreshing to see a documentary and a small release film you wouldn’t see elsewhere.”

When we asked how people would describe the film to a friend, the answers were shorter than ours tend to be. “A must see for anyone who consumes milk or other dairy products.” “If you eat and drink dairy, it’s important you see this.” “Not an easy watch, but giving hope that the future for dairy could be brighter.” 

We particularly liked this comment: “You will see a lot of cows.” 

And the reason we liked it is you wouldn’t believe how many conversations and debates we had during the edit about whether we’d included enough of the cows and calves!

Asked who needs to see the film next, the answers were farmers, agricultural students, schools, supermarket buyers and MPs, more or less in that order. One person said “sceptics”. Another: “Everyone!! I dragged my teen along to see it.”

Thank you to everyone who took part. A third of you said you’d consider hosting a community screening, or know someone who might, and getting bookings set up for community screenings is very much our next task.