The Most Effective
Activist of His Generation
Widely considered the most effective animal rights activist of the 20th century, retired New York school teacher Henry Spira used direct action and ethical campaigning to persuade major corporations to end cruel animal testing. Co-produced by and featuring renowned philosopher and ethicist Peter Singer, this documentary chronicles Spira's successful, high-stakes campaigns against corporate giants like Revlon and Procter & Gamble, as well as the American Museum of Natural History.
Employing strategies rooted in the labor and civil rights movements, Spira targeted specific, winnable goals rather than generalized protest — creating a lasting blueprint for effective activism. His approach combined moral clarity with pragmatic intelligence, demonstrating that one person, working with rigour and patience, can change the policies of billion-dollar corporations.
"Peter Singer has effectively interwoven images of Henry's simple life into a tapestry that will serve to inspire generations of social activists to come."
— Educational Media Reviews Online (EMRO)
"Impressive… shows quite clearly how Spira and his allies went about trying to make a difference, even in the face of indifference and outright hostility."
— ProQuest Review
"An inspiring portrait of the most effective animal rights activist of the past twenty years."
— Legal Research Paper Series, Stanford Law School
"A documentary about a retired New York school teacher who got major institutions like Revlon to make changes that saved millions of animals from having to endure outrageous suffering."
— Screen Guide, Screen Australia
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Best viewed in full screen · Opens on YouTube
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