King Corn is a fun and crusading journey into the digestive tract of our fast food nation where one ultra-industrial, pesticide-laden, heavily-subsidized commodity dominates the food pyramid from top to bottom – corn. Fueled by curiosity and a dash of naiveté, two college buddies return to their ancestral home of Greene, Iowa to figure out how a modest kernel conquered America. With the help of some real farmers, oodles of fertilizer and government aide, and some genetically modified seeds, the friends manage to grow one acre of corn. Along the way, they unlock the hilarious absurdities and scary but hidden truths about America’s modern food system in this engrossing and eye-opening documentary.
In the middle of an economic crisis, in the shadow of Wall Street, an institution that represents a less well-known American tradition is booming. The Park Slope Food Coop: a cooperative supermarket where all 16,000 members work 3 hours per months to earn the right to buy the best food in New York at incredibly low prices. The success of this cooperative is a bad new for capitalism and aggro-alimentary business, and an opportunity to change the food production and distribution systems. We will see what has become of the Park Slope Food Coop, now a well-rooted institution in the heart of Brooklyn: the way it functions, its hundreds of rules, the diversity and eccentricity of its members. We'll see how the culture that has been created at the coop gives its members daily visceral lessons in democracy, how this could represent a potential change in mentality for Americans faced with increasingly difficult economic times.
Morgan Spurlock subjects himself to a diet based only on McDonald's fast food three times a day for thirty days without exercising to try to prove why so many Americans are fat or obese. He submits himself to a complete check-up by three doctors, comparing his weight along the way, resulting in a scary conclusion.
Visit of Gaspésie and stops in a few places: Grande-Rivière, Chandler, Port-Daniel, Maria, Carleton, the Matapédia valley, Matane, Saint-Joachim-de-Tourelle, Cap Gros-Morne, Rivière-au- Renard, Cap Bon-Ami, etc. The film also underlines the commercial and industrial aspect of the region.
The Spanish fishing team is one of the best in the world and the rest of the teams know it. In the last three years they have not been off the podium and in the last World Championship they hope to achieve the same. This documentary reviews the adventure of the Spanish fishing team during the XXXVIII Men's World Sea-Coast Championship in Tunisia and everything that being an elite fisherman entails.
Every year at Christmas, the women of the Slavonian Ladies' Auxiliary celebrate their culinary heritage by getting together to make pusharatas (a type of Croatian doughnut) for the people of Biloxi, Mississippi.
Korean celebrity chef Jiho Im mourns the death of a beloved maternal figure in the only way he knows how: cooking 108 delectable dishes over 24 hours.
As society tackles the problem of feeding our expanding population safely and sustainably, a schism has arisen between scientists and consumers, motivated by fear and distrust. Food Evolution, narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson, explores the polarized debate surrounding GMOs. Looking at the real-world application of food science in the past and present, the film argues for sound science and open-mindedness in a culture that increasingly shows resistance to both.
On August 3rd, 1979, a Vietnamese refugee shoots and kills a white crab fisherman at the town docks in Seadrift, TX. What began as a fishing dispute erupts in violence and ignites a resurgence of the KKK and open hostilities against the Vietnamese along the Gulf Coast. Set during the early days of Vietnamese refugee arrival, “Seadrift” examines the circumstances that led up to the shooting, its tumultuous aftermath, and the unexpected consequences that continue to reverberate today.
Bananas, eggs, and tuna: three basic foodstuffs with three wildly different points of origin. Moullet begins with these on his plate but constructs his film by working backwards and finding the sources for these items and how they reach our plates. As Moullet’s investigation deepens, however, the film moves beyond the confines of a simple exploration of food origins into more political and social realms, not only relating to food but also to the medium of film.
Milk - an essential food for our wellbeing? The highly processed white industrial product we are supposed to consume on a daily basis is suspected of causing numerous diseases of civilization. We take a closer look at the ongoing debate.
Each grain crop - wheat, rye, rice and corn - has been "creating" a special type of person for centuries. For example, rye formed the Slavic culture, wheat influenced the inhabitants of almost all of Central Europe and a significant part of Asia, corn formed the inhabitants from Mexico to Nicaragua, and rice - representatives of Japan, India and China. Today, genetic engineers are trying to create the bread of the future. It is likely that after some time we will have three-dimensional food printers in our kitchens that will be able to "print" buns, loaves or confectionery. However, scientists are convinced that only part of the components for the "printer" will be chemical, and the rest of the components will continue to be grown on earth. At the same time, some researchers believe that genetic engineering may turn out to be a "Pandora's box", while others are sure that they can no longer do without it.
We all love food. As a society, we devour countless cooking shows, culinary magazines and foodie blogs. So how could we possibly be throwing nearly 50% of it in the trash? Filmmakers and food lovers Jen and Grant dive into the issue of waste from farm, through retail, all the way to the back of their own fridge. After catching a glimpse of the billions of dollars of good food that is tossed each year in North America, they pledge to quit grocery shopping and survive only on discarded food. What they find is truly shocking.
A documentary that exposes the shocking truths behind industrial food production and food wastage, focusing on fishing, livestock and crop farming. A must-see for anyone interested in the true cost of the food on their plate.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, along with other international organizations, is leading efforts to increase aquaculture by encouraging countries around the world to invest in its development. However, local communities strongly oppose the expansion of fish farms due to resource depletion and water pollution concerns. From Italy to Greece, Spain to Senegal, and all the way to Patagonia in Chile, their journey to uncover the truth extends to the ends of the earth.
From New York City to the farmlands of the Midwest, there are 50,000 Chinese restaurants in the U.S., yet one dish in particular has conquered the American culinary landscape with a force befitting its military moniker—“General Tso’s Chicken.” But who was General Tso and how did this dish become so ubiquitous? Ian Cheney’s delightfully insightful documentary charts the history of Chinese Americans through the surprising origins of this sticky, sweet, just-spicy-enough dish that we’ve adopted as our own.
More and more people are suffering from wheat and gluten intolerance. Wheat protein was long considered to be the cause of this scourge, and today gluten free products are on all the supermarket shelves. However, there is now increasing suspicion that it is not wheat but how it is processed that makes bread a potentially unhealthy food. Industrial processes simply do not give bread enough time to mature. More and more bakeries are reacting to this by introducing former production methods and ingredients such as champagne rye, emmer or in vogue chia seeds. Bread is baked according to old recipes, sometimes using home grown and home milled grains.
High Tide in Newfoundland
Meat is the modern story of the animals we eat, as told by the people who never get to say their piece - from the solitary hunter who believes everyone needs to be educated about their food, to an industrial pig farmer who argues that money isn't his primary driver.
Keith Allen meets his long-term hero, Keith Floyd, who transformed the presentation of gastronomy on British television.