In Oscar-Shortlisted ‘Chasing Roo,’ Australia’s Beloved Marsupials Fall To Rifle Shots, By The Millions

deadline.com:

When night falls in the Australian Outback, the hunt begins. The prey: kangaroos roaming – hopping – in the wild. Rifle shots ring out, killing them by the millions, including hundreds of thousands of female roos, some with tiny joeys in their pouches.

This is the stark reality explored in the Oscar-shortlisted documentary Chasing Roo, directed by two-time Oscar nominee Skye Fitzgerald (Hunger Ward, Lifeboat). “I wanted to do something about this ascendancy that we assume over animals, writ large,” Fitzgerald tells Deadline. “I thought, what better way to do it than through the lens of this lovable animal, the kangaroo, the national symbol of Australia.

And when I learned that the culling of kangaroos in Australia is the largest commercial killing of a land-based animal in the world, I thought this is the way, this is how I want to tell this story.” The film begins with a scene in the interior of a darkened truck, where lifeless kangaroos hang from hooks. “That shot was from where they load the roos in at the end of a hunt, and then they’re stored in that refrigerated box for up to a week before another truck comes around to collect them and bring them to the abattoir where they’re processed,” Fitzgerald explains. “That’s a weekly event where that truck comes around.

We witnessed a number of those times — the transferring of the carcasses from that refrigerator box to the truck. And it’s sobering.” Kangaroo meat is processed into pet food, and the animals’ hides are turned into leather goods – jackets, purses, hats, gloves, and even soccer cleats.