Inspired by the growing number of docs about food that have been coming out lately, P.O.V. staffer Jessica Lee recently took another look at an older film that inspired her.
Recent documentaries such as The Price of Sugar, King Corn, and Black Gold address how food is inextricably linked to politics and social justice. For those interested in watching an older film that takes a look at the business and politics of food, check out Ilha das Flores, a 13-minute 1989 documentary short by Brazilian filmmaker Jorge Furtado.
I had never heard of Ilha das Flores before I saw it as a student in a film course. I found the film affecting and provocative, and when I did some research about it, I learned that it was both critically acclaimed and very well known. The film won the Silver Bear award at the 1990 Berlin Film Festival, and in a show of populist acclaim, IMDB users voted it one of the top 50 documentaries of all time (as of January 28, 2008 it was ranked #11).
Environmental issues are a hot topic this election year. David Nanasi caught up with P.O.V. alum Judith Helfand (A Healthy Baby Girl, P.O.V. 1997 and True Lives 2005, and The Uprising of '34, P.O.V. 1995) and Daniel B. Gold to hear more about what they've been doing to support their latest film, Everything's Cool.
Both Everything's Cool and your previous film, Blue Vinyl, have centered on environmental themes. What drew you to the subject?
Judith: Sometimes stories and themes choose us. Personally, my focus on the environment as a filmmaker is the result of an unnatural turn of events — when I was 25, I was diagnosed with cancer from in utero exposure to the anti-miscarriage drug and synthetic hormone diethylstilbestrol (DES), which my mom took when she was pregnant with me in 1963. Within minutes of my diagnosis, the "environment" became personal. It was not out there in "nature," but in here — in our bodies, in our homes and apartments, inextricably linked to our relationships with our mothers and fathers, in our ability or inability to reproduce, parent and protect our young.
That experience led me to make A Healthy Baby Girl, an autobiographical film that reframed the toxics issue into a story about family, and how one generation unwittingly poisoned the next.
That film naturally led to its sequel Blue Vinyl, which I was truly fortunate to co-direct and co-produce with Daniel Gold. Dan also shot the film and received a Sundance Excellence in Cinematography award. I think the cinematic and political challenges we faced with Blue Vinyl — and the great feeling that comes from making a movie that has the narrative capacity to both entertain and be in service of a movement — inspired us to tackle global warming, which Dr. Heidi Cullen, the Weather Channel climatologist who is featured in Everything's Cool calls the "mother of all environmental problems."
The challenge is at the heart of the global warming messaging problem, and is in fact at the heart of the story we tell — it is what animates our characters: how do you collapse the future (the real-life threat of an ever-warming world and our short-sighted addiction to oil) into the present and make the message urgent enough to take action before it's too late?
Each week, we'll highlight links from the "Watching" and "Reading" sidebars on the right side of the page.
WATCHING
9500 Liberty Thanks to the Utne Reader blog for pointing out this extraordinary interactive documentary that truly "elevates the immigration debate." Watch videos.
Star Spangled Blues (2006) is a contemplative and moving look at why we fight war. Narrated by Iranian-American Gita Saedi, the film uses archival materials, memoir and music to weave together Gita's story of a once pacifist cousin serving in Iran, the rise and fall of two empires that span centuries, and hope as seen in her son and the next generation. The film is all the more startling when you take into consideration the fact that it was written, shot and edited in just five days.
In honor of Thanksgiving, I took a spin around YouTube this weekend to see whether there were any good cooking or food-related videos worth watching.
The first video I stumbled across was produced by a group called Cooking Up a Story. They have been producing videos and posting them on YouTube since May of last year. They want to tell "stories about real people and their special connections to food and sustainable living." The videos have a D-I-Y ethos to them, but actually showcase some solid editing, good storytelling sensibility and charming interviewees who are clearly unscripted. I watched a video about urban fruit gleaning in Portland, Oregon and I was hooked. I ended up watching five more in the same sitting.
July 29, 6:30 pm My American Girls Lower East Side Tenement Museum
New York, NY
Come to a screening of My American Girls, and share in the joys and struggles of the Ortiz family, first generation immigrants from the Dominican Republic. Find out more about the screening!
Inspired by the growing number of docs about food that have been coming out lately, P.O.V. staffer Jessica Lee recently took another look at an older film that inspired her.
Judith: Sometimes stories and themes choose us. Personally, my focus on the environment as a filmmaker is the result of an unnatural turn of events — when I was 25, I was diagnosed with cancer from in utero exposure to the anti-miscarriage drug and synthetic hormone diethylstilbestrol (DES), which my mom took when she was pregnant with me in 1963. Within minutes of my diagnosis, the "environment" became personal. It was not out there in "nature," but in here — in our bodies, in our homes and apartments, inextricably linked to our relationships with our mothers and fathers, in our ability or inability to reproduce, parent and protect our young. 
MIT academic Henry Jenkins weighs in
The first video I stumbled across was produced by a group called 