Milk campaign brings Tigers film to Oban
A campaigning mum is bringing an award-winning film to Oban telling the true story of a milk salesman in Pakistan who took on a baby formula food maker.
Tigers will be shown at Oban Phoenix Cinema on Monday March 18 at 6pm. Tickets are £5 each.
Mum Valerie Cleave, who is a member of Baby Milk Action – the UK member of International Baby Food Action Network – needs at least 25 people to watch it to help cover costs of bringing the film all the way from Cambridge to show in Oban.
The network is a not-forprofit organisation which protects breastfeeding and babies fed on formula to prevent unnecessary illness, suffering and death, says Mrs Cleave, who lives near Lochgilphead and joined Baby Milk Action more than 10 years ago.
Oban is the second only location in Scotland, after the Glasgow Film Festival, to screen Tigers, directed by Oscar-winning Danis Tanovic.
It tells the story of Ayan, a pharmaceutical salesman in Pakistan who lands a new job working for an international corporation. When he discovers his new company’s baby formula has killed hundreds of children, he begins a lone and dangerous battle against the company.
‘It’s a film for everyone to see – men and women, formula and breast-feeding parents most welcome, young people and older ones. I do hope a variety of people may come along, whether they have anything to do with infant feeding or not. It’s a very powerful film,’ said Mrs Cleave.
After breast-feeding her son for five years, she says she is against the ‘normalisation’ of bottle feeding and that Tigers lifts the lid on the truth behind the baby feeding industry’s marketing.
It was after being ‘scorned’ by an NHS nurse for breastfeeding her then two-yearold child that Mrs Cleave took a local NHS/UNICEF breast-feeding peer support volunteer course to encourage more new mums to feed their babies naturally.
‘I’m just against the normalisation of bottle feeding and think this term should be referred to as artificial feeding more often so as to emphasise exactly what it is.
‘Having listened to endless debates in the media, there seems to be a huge mother-centred approach to infant feeding and not enough baby-centred focus. Let’s think more about what the baby needs. And, yes, that means giving up a lot,’ she said.
Any profits made from the screening at the Phoenix will go to Baby Milk Action. To book in advance, go to obanphoenix.com. Watch the film trailer at babymilkaction. org/tigers.