fi l m l i s t Cynthia Vagnetti

edia literacy has been elevated with the advancement of digital video push towards globalization are all technology. From commercially produced films to community digital part of the reason why many people Mstorytellers the visual narrative continues to be a powerful tool for are alarmed by the introduction of exploring in-depth issues of the day. Access to these films can be cumbersome and genetically altered crops in our food while there are a few long-standing distribution outlets our research has identified a supply. As the truth is revealed to how useful website to assist a search. Take some time and look at www.mediarights.org multinational food corporations is attempting to control our food supply Th is film list off ers a selection of media on food and agriculture issues. Th e list is a farmers are demonstrating real solu- sampling of full-length documentaries to short animations that will support any- tions through organic and sustainable one’s eff orts in raising awareness and initiating dialog for social change. agriculture practices. • www.thefutureoff ood.com Key words and search terms: Agriculture, Economic Development, Family & Society, • www.wired.com/news/technology/ Environment, Economic Justice, Environmental Preservation, Identity, Youth, 0,1282,64089,00.html Gender/women, Animal Rights, Health/Health Advocacy, Labor, Migrant Workers, • www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/ Politics/Government, Pollution, Poverty, Biodiversity, Corporate Violations to the a/2004/11/07/LVG709K7MV1.DTL Environment, U.S./Foreign Relations

Th e Real Dirt on Farmer John Deconstructing Food • ww.ff cf.bc.ca/Deconstructing20Supper/ Taggart Siegel, director. 83 minutes, 2005. Marianne Kaplan, director. 48 minutes, Synopsis.htm Contact: [email protected] 2002. Contact: www.bullfrogfilms.com An epic tale of a Midwestern farmer Renowned Canadian chef John Bishop Th e Future of Food who transforms his farm into a creative takes viewers on an eye-opening Deborah Koons Garcia, director. 89 min- hub of activity through community odyssey behind the scenes of global utes, 2004. Contact: info@lilyfilms.com supported agriculture (CSA), an food production. His quest, starting alternative economic model for farm- from his five-star gourmet restaurant, Th e Future of Food examines the ing. A true story, farmer and visionary leads the viewer from organic farms to complex web of market and political John Peterson bravely resurrects an biotech trade shows and laboratories, forces that are changing what we eat. intergenerational farm in Illinois to a in attempts to explore the politics, eco- From the U.S and Canada to the fields biodynamic and organic food source nomics and ethics of food. A changed of Oaxaca, Mexico, this film gives a serving 1,500 families in Chicago. Be man, Bishop returns home to serve only voice to farmers whose lives and liveli- prepared for a quirky and emotional organic food and embrace the philoso- hoods have been negatively impacted story of transformation and the radical phy, “think globally, act locally.” by genetically engineered foods that shifts in the social, cultural and eco- • www.movingimages.ca/catalogue/Nature/ have quietly filled U.S. grocery store nomic landscape of rural America. deconstructingsupper.html shelves for the past decade. Th e health • www.therealdirt.net • www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/decon.html implications, government policies and • www.washingtonpost.com/

1 wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/06/ Th e Meatrix • www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050521/ AR2006060600307.html Louis Fox, director. 4 min., 2003. Contact: food.asp • http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/ [email protected] • www.usatoday.com/life/movies/ pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060119/ news/2005-05-15-store-wars_x.htm REVIEWS/60117003/1023 Th e Meatrix is a humorous Flash • www.pbs.org/independentlens/realdirt/ animation that spoofs “Th e Matrix” Th e True Cost of Food qa.html films while drawing attention to the Free Range Graphics, director. 15 minutes, problems caused by factory farming 2004. Contact: www.truecostoff ood.com and stars a young pig, Leo. He thinks he Super Size Me lives on a pleasant family farm until he Th e True Cost of Food is an animated Morgan Spurlock, director. 97 minutes, is approached by a trenchcoat-clad cow, short on consumption patterns, show- 2003. Contact: eesupersize@hartsharp- Moopheus, who shows him the ugly ing a family in a “Buy-It-All Mart” rac- video.com truth about agribusiness. At the end of ing to get food for dinner. At checkout, the movie, viewers are directed to an the cashier charges them “the true Super Size Me, a tongue-in-cheek look “action page” which provides additional costs” of everything they’re buying and at the legal, financial, and physical costs information about factory farms and then explains in detail of what goes into of America’s hunger for fast food. Is encourages consumers to support raising beef from ecological disasters, it our fault for lacking control, or are local family farmers and purchase to energy costs to health concerns. the fast-food corporations to blame? sustainably-raised meats through the • www.organicconsumers.org/Politics/ Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock takes Eat Well Guide. foodwaste081005.cfm the viewer on a journey interviewing • www.themeatrix.com • http://angeles.sierraclub.org/news/ experts in 20 U.S. cities, including • www.mediarights.org/film/the_meatrix. SS_2004-07/foodcampaign.asp Houston, the “Fattest City” in America. php From Surgeon Generals to gym teach- • www.organicconsumers.org/foodsafety/ ers, cooks to kids, lawmakers to legisla- Meatrix110503.cfm Young Agrarians tors, these authorities shared their • www.farm.org.uk/FM_Content. Johanna Divine, director. 8 minutes, 2005. research, opinions and “gut feelings” on aspx?ID=154 Contact: [email protected] our ever-expanding girth. Spurlock also put his own body on the line, living on Young Agrarians was created to nothing but McDonald’s for an entire Store Wars: Th e Organic Rebellion introduce young people to a new way month which adds up to a fat food bill, Louis Fox, director. 5 minutes 2005. Con- of looking at agriculture and food harrowing visits to the doctor, and tact: [email protected] production and the many opportunities compelling viewing for anyone who’s in sustainable agriculture and local ever wondered if man could live on fast Th is entertaining spoof of the Star food systems. A journey from Palmer, food alone. Wars films features Cuke Skywalker, Alaska, to Tumacacori, Arizona, the • http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/movies/ Princess Lettuce, Chewbroccoli and film relates the stories of small-scale review/2004/05/07/super_size_me/index. other organic rebels—played by real farmers, ranchers and market garden- html vegetables dressed as “Star Wars” ers of all ages and backgrounds who • http://worldfilm.about.com/cs/ characters—battling it out with Darth have been drawn by their love for the documentaries/fr/supersizeme.htm Tader, the evil lord of the Dark Side land to undertake the most noble of • www.mediarights.org/film/super_size_me of the Farm. Th e film seeks to educate occupations—growing food. consumers about the benefits of organic • www.mediathatmattersfest.org/5/ products and in a light-hearted way young_agrarians/ asks people to think about the their • www.leopold.iastate.edu/news/ food choices. newsreleases/2006/011806_colloquium. • www. storewars.org htm

2 As We Sow my_fathers_garden Th e Luckiest Nut in Town Jan Weber, director. 23 minutes, 2002. • http://cinema.cornell.edu/fleff /oct99/ Emily James, director. 8 minutes, 2005. Contact: [email protected] myfathers.html Contact: [email protected]

As We Sow documents the stories of Th e film follows an animated American survival and failure in the real heart- A Time to Act peanut, who sings about the difficulties land, a struggle pitting family against Michael Sheridan, director. 26 minutes, of nuts from developing countries. family, neighbor against neighbor, 1999. Contact: www.cfra.org/resources/ Th e film helps people to see how the citizens against their government, and publications.htm pressure to embrace “free market” eco- small, independent farmers against nomics, with its promise of a wealthy, the giants of global agribusiness. In A Time to Act is an excellent presenta- abundant market place has actually location shooting and taped interviews tion of solutions to the crisis of Amer- driven many countries further into with independent and contract farm- ica’s small farms. Th rough comparison poverty. A film that explores economics ers, CEOs and large-scale livestock of practices in soil conservation, animal and history creates musical sequences producers, grassroots rural activists husbandry, quality of product, and fair which explain the roles of the Interna- and environmentalists the viewer labor practices the viewer begins to tional Monetary Fund (IMF), the World begins to understand the changing uses understand the new type of family farm Bank, and the World Trade Organiza- of land from the conflict between the run by multiple families, which gener- tion (WTO). diff erences of farming practices in rural ates a wide variety of sustainable cash • www.mediathatmattersfest.org/5/ America. crops all year. A thoughtful and sober- the_luckiest_nut_in_the_world/ • www.mediarights.org/film/as_we_sow ing examination of negative eff ects of www.aswesow.com industrial agriculture contrasted with the new and encouraging examples of Asparagus (A Stalk-umentary) sustainable and cooperative farming. Kirsten Kelly and Anne de Mare, directors. My Father’s Garden • www.buyindies.com/listings/T/I/VDPJ- 72 minutes, 2006. Contact: www.mediar- Miranda Smith, director. 56 minutes, 1995. TIM-649-V.html ights.org Contact: [email protected] • www.videoproject.com/tim-649-v.html In 2002, Kristen returned to her home My Father’s Garden is about the use and town with Anne to explore the spring misuse of technology on the American Broken Limbs cash crop asparagus, once hailed as farm. Th is film tells the true story of Jamie Howell and Guy Evans, directors. 57 the Green King in Oceana County two such lives. One of the farmers is minutes, 2004. Contact: www.brokenlimbs. Michigan. What Anne saw was a Herbert Smith, a dedicated champion org community’s economic survival was of the “miracle” sprays of the 1950s threatened and learned a community’s who used these chemicals to fashion Troubled by the eff ects of consolida- identity was at stake. Th ey realized that a man-made paradise and the other tion and globalization, Guy Evans sets what was happening in Oceana County farmer, Fred Kirschenmann of North out on a journey to find out why once brought up really big questions about Dakota, when faced with a shattered prosperous and pastoral farmland is American identity and global econom- farm economy and devastating envi- disappearing. Evans finds hope finds ics for all American industries. As fight ronmental eff ects of chemical farming, hope in a new breed of farmer with for the identity and economic survival transitioned to organic farming. Th is solutions applicable not just to farming of this community ensued we learn film helps the viewer explore two paral- but nearly every sector in the American how foreign policy can aff ect America’s lel paradigms in agriculture and two economy. communities. individuals united by their common • www.mediathatmattersfest.org/6/ goal of producing good food. asparagus_a_stalkumentary/ • www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/mfg.html • www.vegetablegrowersnews.com/pages/ http://www.mediarights.org/film/ arts.php?ns=296

3 • http://sandiego.indymedia.org/ Th e Greening of Cuba Barn Red en/2006/01/113022.shtml Ray Burley, director. 38 minutes, 1996. Rich Brauer, director. 1 hour 38 minutes, Marilyn Borchardt, Food First Institute/ 2004. Contact: www.porchlight.com Food and Development, producer. Contact: Th e Global Banquet: Politics of Foods www.bullfrogfilms.com Barn Red was shot on location in the Anne Macksoud and John Ankele, direc- Grand Traverse region and stars Acad- tors. 57 minutes, 2001. Contact: anne. Challenged with growing food for 11 emy Award®–winner Ernest Borgnine. [email protected] million in the face of the continuing “Th e story is a dramatic struggle for the US. embargo, Cuba embarked on the land. Faced with the possible loss of his Th e Global Banquet reveals the pro- largest conversion to organic farming farm, land that has been in his family foundly negative impact of globalization ever attempted. In Th e Greening of for generations, Borgnine’s character on our food system. It explains how Cuba choices that are healthier for must make some tough decisions as he Agribusiness is squeezing out small the environment, reminds us that tries to enlist the support of his neigh- farmers and how our trade policies entire small nations can still feed their bors who are tempted by the promise are destroying peoples’ ability to feed people. Th e Greening of Cuba profiles of great wealth from aggressive land themselves. Th e documentary debunks Cuban farmers and scientists working developers. underlying myths such as: hunger is the to reinvent a sustainable agriculture, • www.gtrlc.org/happen/hap2003/12/ result of scarcity that small countries based on ecological principles and hap1208.htm simply can’t feed themselves, that only local knowledge rather than imported • www.brauer.com/pages/prod/cinema/ market driven, chemically based, indus- agricultural inputs. In their quest for barnred/br_nw.html trial agriculture can feed the world. self sufficiency, Cubans combine time- • www.mediarights.org/film/the_global_ tested traditional methods with cutting banquet_politics_of_food edge biotechnology. Voices of Minnesota Farm Women • http://thewitness.org/archive/june2002/ • www.mediarights.org/film/the_greening_ Cynthia Vagnetti, director. 29 minutes, mediareview.html of_cuba.php 2005. Contact: www.landstewardshipproj- • www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/newsltr/v9n1/ ect.org sa-10.htm Fed Up! Whether by economic necessity or a Wholesome Goodness Productions, direc- philosophical choice, more women are tor. 57 minutes, 2002. Contact: angelo@ Contaminated: Th e New Science of entering agriculture, mostly the very wholesomegoodness.org Food small operations or enterprises. Th is Josh Shore, director. 7 minutes, 2003. Con- documentary focuses on a diff erent Fed Up! tackles the increasingly im- tact: [email protected] type of agriculture and 10 Minnesota portant issue of genetically modified women are successful at it. Voices of foods, answering prevalent questions In Contaminated, Fritjof Capra, Paul Minnesota Farm Women tells the story about the genetic engineering of com- Hawken, and Vandana Shiva explain of Minnesota’s heritage and legacy mon foods, the development of modern the evolution of the new biotech agri- through oral history interviews and agribusiness, the threat of genetic business and its potential dangers to the aired on Pioneer Public Television, pollution, and many other topics while sustainability of the global food supply. April 6, 2005. An educational packet is addressing alternatives specific to the A campaign for rigorous testing and available. San Francisco Bay area. clear product labeling. • www.landstewardshipproject.org/pr/05/ • www.mediarights.org/film/fed_up newsr_050317.htm • www.acreagelife.com/articles/acreage_ life_articles/dec_04_farmWomen.cfm

4 Voices of Iowa Farm Women Food and Agriculture Network and Cynthia Vagnetti, director. 19 minutes, utilized as a Humanities program to 2004. Contact: www.wfan.org launch discussions hosted by Leopold Center and Practical Farmers of Iowa. Voices of Iowa Farm Women is part of • www.leopold.iastate.edu/news/ a larger project, Voices of American newsreleases/2004/voices_092804.htm Farm Women conducted by Vagnetti, who has interviewed 30 women from across the United States whose farming Voices of Iowa Farm Women techniques promote environmental Cynthia Vagnetti, director. 40 minutes, responsibility, economic stability, and 2007. Contact: [email protected] community well-being. See Voices of Minnesota Farm Women and forthcom- Forthcoming, Voices From the Field, ing, Voices of Michigan Farm Women featuring the Voices of Upper Midwest and Voices of Wisconsin Farm Women. Farm Women advancing local food Th e Iowa project features seven women consumption while restoring our agri- and has been sponsored by Women food system.

5 http://foodfarmingandcommunity.org/ FUNDED BY THE W.K. KELLOGG FOUNDATION