Food Studies

Mumbai fishermen Rakesh and Ganesh are inheritors of the great Koli knowledge system—a way to harvest the sea by following the moon and the tides. Rakesh has kept faith in traditional fishing methods while Ganesh has embraced technology. A prize-winner at Sundance, Against the Tide is a tale of two men’s bond fractured by the weight of a changing world and a sea threatened by climate change

MINAMATA MANDALA

Filmed over 15 years, this epic three-part documentary by Kazuo Hara (The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On) chronicles the history of struggle for a community in southern Japan suffering from “Minamata disease”—a debilitating neurological disease caused by methylmercury poisoning from the consumption of fish contaminated by industrial wastewater—as they continue the decades-long battle for legal recognition and reparations from the government.

RESOURCES

The meat industry is booming in Canada, where huge factories use standardized production methods to convert vast herds of livestock into meat. They hire asylum seekers, mainly from Latin America, so they can continue to produce at competitive rates. This observational film splits its focus between the workers and the animals, considering the living conditions of both, while providing a subtle yet critical look at a world driven by capitalism and the links in the chain that make this possible.

CONSIDERING THE ENDS

In 2016, videos showing the slaughter conditions  of farm animals shocked the world of public opinion. With complicit gaze, Elsa Maury films  a young shepherd’s relationship of co-dependence with her flock of ewes, which she must learn to euthanise under the best possible conditions. Considering the Ends discusses and raises important questions about our connection to the planet and its animals.

FRUITS OF LABOR

A Mexican-American teenage farmworker dreams of graduating high school, when ICE raids in her community threaten to separate her family and force her to become her family's breadwinner. Fruits of Labor is a lyrical, coming-of-age documentary feature about adolescence, nature and how ancestors paved the way. Director Emily Cohen Ibáñez documents life guided by the spirit world through her hardships and joys in modern America.

RODENTS OF UNUSUAL SIZE

Louisiana has suffered from hurricanes, flooding and oil spills, but nothing has been as insidious as the nutria. This giant swamp rat, known for its orange buckteeth, is prone to tunneling and eating plant roots, threatening the fragile wetlands. Rodents follows the sometimes peculiar efforts of Gulf residents as they try to defend their imperiled land from this invasive species.

A WHALE OF A TALE

In 2010, the sleepy fishing town of Taiji found itself in the world’s spotlight when The Cove, a documentary denouncing its whaling traditions, won an Academy Award. Fascinating and thought-provoking, A Whale of Tale revisits this story and discovers a different perspective as it unearths a deep divide in eastern and western thought about nature, wildlife and cultural sensitivity.

FOOD EVOLUTION

Amidst a polarized debate marked by passion, suspicion and confusion, this fascinating documentary – narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson and directed by Oscar-nominee Scott Hamilton Kennedy – explores the controversy surrounding GMOs and food. Travelling from the cornfields of Iowa to banana farms in Uganda, Food Evolution brings a fresh perspective to one of the most critical issues facing global society today.

A RIVER BELOW

A captivating documentary about the ethics of activism in the modern media age, A River Below examines the efforts of two conservationists in the Amazon – one, a marine biologist, the other, an animal activist and host of a popular National Geographic TV show – whose methods to save the mythical pink river dolphin from extinction trigger unforeseen consequences.

WILD PLANTS

From urban farms in Detroit to Native-owned agriculture projects across the midwest to guerrilla gardens in Zurich, Wild Plants is a kaleidoscopic portrait of activists around the world who are creating their own botanic utopias.

BOONE

The final year in the life of a small farm in Southern Oregon is vividly captured in this study of a way of life quickly disappearing due to strict government regulations and competition from corporate farms.

PORTRAIT OF A GARDEN

Capturing one year in the life of a historic garden, this magnificent documentary is an ode to nature and the delicate, interdependent relationship between man and the natural world.

FISH TAIL

The impact of global industrial overfishing on a small community of fishermen in the Azores is explored in this intimate, beautiful documentary.