One of the perks of working for the American Conservation Film Festival is that I get to see a lot of films that will almost never make it to your neighborhood multiplex. Some may see limited release, may even make it into the art house circuit, but mostly, these are films made because a filmmaker is passionate about telling a story they feel must be told. The films may suffer from poor production value, may be waaaaay too long, or worse, boring, but I watch them anyway. I’m slogging through finishing a documentary I shot, produced, and am editing, so I have at least an informed inkling of what it takes to get from concept to product. I’m on the team; I’m of the tribe—I’ll watch your excruitiatingly tedious film with love in my heart.
So.
There’s a bumper crop of food-related/sustainable agriculture/locavore/know-who-produces-your-food films this year, and they’ve scared the bejeebees out of me. It’s not just the disturbing images of commercial feed lots, or the moonsuits chicken farmers wear while spreading toxic-to-humans, proprietary-formulated litter and chemicals on future McNuggets, or the ammonia-basted filler destined for 95 percent of fast food burgers in the US, it’s also the alarming and insidious use of products and substances engineered from stockpiles of corn and soy, both heavily subsidized by the US government. Don’t even get me started on the large corporation that rhymes with Consanto (rwC), and their squad of spies who blacklist farmers propagating non-rwC strains of soy.
Full disclosure--I am a bit of a goonie-googoo, dirt-worshiping, crunchy granola hippie…and I am somewhat of a conspiracy theorist. BUT, humor me; see “Food, Inc.” or “Fresh” if you get a chance (we’re screening both at the film festival in Shepherdstown, WV, in early November). Read “Fast Food Nation”, “Animal, Vegetable, or Miracle”, or anything by Michael Pollan.
You are what you eat? Scary thought.
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