I like TreeHugger’s list a lot. I’ve only seen three of the five movies mentioned — one is just now slowly edging its way across the country (Food Fight) – but I’d recommend the three I’ve seen.
Here is TreeHugger’s list and a few thoughts from El Dragón.
1. The World Acording to Monsanto
2. Our Daily Bread
3. Food Fight
4. King Corn
5. The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
I’ll just talk about the three I know, each of which takes very different approaches to making the case that we have to change our “food system.”
[A quick aside. Can I say what a problem I have with the phrase "food system"? Here's my criteria for a great food film: Never use the phrase "food system." I know, I use it myself. But it's a wonky term that alienates civilians in the food war, so I'm shopping for another. OK. End aside.]
The World According to Monsanto and King Corn each hits its target solidly but they take polar opposite strategies for talking about the “food system” (There! I said it!). Where Monsanto is a diatribe, King Corn is a gentle ribbing. Where Monsanto is devastating and somber, King Corn brims with humor. Both are totally effective and musn’t be missed, but Monsanto is ultimately a movie made for true believers, people who see the evil company’s evil as self-evident. This is ultimately the test of a good foodumentary. Are you managing to preach beyond the choir? Are you evangelizing? Monsanto is most effective for members of the Church of Michael Pollan, unfortunately.
King Corn, meanwhile, is an evangelist, a real gem – a foodumentary the belies the sad chiche of stuffy sustainable foods arguments (and overuse of the term “food system.” Like I’m doing now!). The guys who made King Corn want you to laugh at the absurdity of how we make food, and they do a pretty good job of that by showing themselves growing one acre of corn in Iowa (deliberately drawing the ridicule and teasing of local farmers, for great effect), applying for federal subsidies for their one acre of corn, or making high-fructose corn syrup in their own kitchen, as if it were pudding or oatmeal. Great film business, this. In my mind, KC is one of the strongest food films I’ve ever seen because of its Big Corn as Comedy approach, and it throws the gauntlet down for other movies. Bring your best game in reaching civilians, foodumentarists, because KC is the winner so far.
But is it Oscar-worthy? Well, it was ten times better than Forest freaking Gump, which won six*, so I guess so.
For my money, the only true Oscar winner on this list, though, is Our Daily Bread.This is a gorgeous, breathtaking movie. Imagine if Stanley Kubrick shot a documentary about modern “farming,” without voice over or any meaningful dialog, loading it, instead, with images that leave you feeling as if you’ve never contemplated how food is made or grown. Because you haven’t. Not until you’ve seen Our Daily Bread. It leaves you feeling alienated, disgusted, dumbstruck, and impassioned. And you never once hear the word “food system.”
A recent movie I would add to this list is The Real Dirt on Farmer John. This, too, is a real movie, made by someone who loves film, and some of the footage, especially when one realizes that the filmmaker has been following and recording farmer John Peterson for almost 30 years, is astonishingly intimate. Here’s John at the sale of his family farm during the farm crisis of the seventies; here’s John, depressed and wandering in Mexico afterward; here’s John during the rise of his CSA in the nineties. The Real Dirt on Farmer John is a real film, a real documentary — not just a diatribe or foodumentary. It’s a painstaking document, the kind of movie that makes you feel grateful and amazed that it was ever completed.
But I’ve never seen The Power of Community. Have you? Weigh in. Tell me about it in the comments, please!
* Don’t get me started.
