As a Chinese-American, I was raised in an adventurous culinary culture where no food is off-limits. From chicken feet to stinky tofu, the Chinese will consume it all. Food taboos have always puzzled me -- in particular, the Jewish taboo against pork. Why did a meat celebrated by so many cultures become forbidden by others? What were the religious, cultural, and perhaps medical roots of this taboo?

The answer, we discovered, is far more complex than we ever imagined. The deeper we dug into the question, the more we realized the answer lies in the essential nature of this highly intelligent (some would call it subversive) animal. Humans and pigs share centuries of entwined history, a history that is both fraught and complicated. We’ve killed and feasted on pigs; they’ve killed and feasted on us. We’ve worshiped them and despised them, mistreated them and taken them into our homes as family members. No other animal has had such a strange and paradoxical relationship with us.

Magnificent Beast is a journey into both our history as well as the pig’s, a history of conflict as well as mutual dependence that continues even today.

-Tess, Co-Director and Co-Producer