SLOW FOOD CINEMA: Recent documentary films compiled by Stephen Nottingham

Film	length	year	description	credits
A Year in Burgundy	1 h 31 m	2013	Seven families discuss the cultural and creative process of making wine in the Burgundy region of France.	Dir: David Kennard
Addicted to Sheep	1 h 26 m	2015	UK: In North Pennines, tenant farmers Tom & Kay look after a flock of prized sheep. This film follows them on the farm for a year.	Dir: Magali Pettier
Bananas*	1 h 20 m	2009	Sweden: The effects (death, infertility) of Dole’s use of a banned chemical on workers in banana plantations in Nicaragua.	Dir. Fredrik Gertten
Big Boys Gone Bananas	1 h 30 m	2011	Sweden/Germany/UK/USA/Denmark: In 2009 Dole Food Company campaigned to prevent the screening of ‘Bananas’ at Los Angeles film festival. Three years later, the director comes back with another eye-opening documentary examining the right to freedom of speech and the story of what happens when filmmakers go up against a large corporation like Dole.	Dir. Fredrik Gertten
Can You Dig This	1 h 20 m	2015	USA: South Los Angeles. As part of an urban gardening movement taking root in South LA, people are planting to transform their neighbourhoods. This film follows the inspirational journeys of four unlikely gardeners, discovering what happens when they put their hands in the soil. The film features inspirational guerrilla gardener Ron Finley.	Dir. Delila Vallot
Discovering Lindane: the legacy of HCH production	33 m	2015	Spain: The legacy of Lindane production in northern Spain, and a project demonstrating how to clean up pesticide contamination here and in similar situations.	Film by Arturo Hortas
Edible City: A documentary about the good food movement	55 m	2014	USA: “fun, fast-paced journey through the local Good Food Movement taking root in the San Francisco Bay Area, and around the world. Introducing a diverse cast of extraordinary and eccentric characters who are challenging the paradigm of our broken food system, EDIBLE CITY digs into their unique perspectives and transformative work—from edible education to grassroots activism to building local economies…”	Dir: Andrew Hasse
El Bulli: Cooking in Progress	1 h 48 m	2010	Germany: For 6 months of the year, Spanish chef Ferran Adrià and his team used to close El Bulli to prepare the innovative menu for the next season. An elegant, detailed study of food as avant-garde art.	Dir: Gereon Wetzel
Farmageddon: The unseen war on American family farms	1 h 26 m	2011	USA: The story of a mom whose son healed from all allergies and asthma after consuming raw milk and real food from farms. It shows people all over US forming food co-ops and private clubs to get these foods, and how they were raided by state and local governments.	Dir: Kristin Canty
Fed Up	1 h 32 m	2014	USA: A look at the causes of obesity epidemic and the food industry's role in aggravating it.	Film by Stephanie Soechtig & Katie Couric
Fish Meat	29 & 52 m	2012	USA/Turkey: As our hunger for seafood grows, the seas are running out of fish. But what exactly is farmed fish? Two friends, a fish scientist and environmental engineer, take a sailing voyage to pull back the cover on modern fish farming. Along the way they discover the tragedy of Bluefin Tuna and the joy of carp.	Dir: Joe Cunningham Writer: Ted Caplow
Food, inc	1 h 34 m	2008	USA: An unflattering look inside America's corporate controlled food industry. Contributors include Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser and Richard Lobb.	Dir: Robert Kenner
Grazers: A Cooperative Story	69 m	2014	USA: With increasing interest in farm-to-table food, a small group of upstate New York farmers sees an opportunity to hold on to their endangered farms by raising and selling grass-fed beef. The film follows the cooperatives efforts for two years, exposing the difficulties facing small-scale farming in our modern, industrial world.	Film by Sarah Teale & Lisa F Jackson
Good Things Await	90 m	2014	Denmark/USA (subtitled): Farmer Niels Stokholm and his wife Rita work the biodynamic farm in Thorshøjgaardalternative, Denmark, with natural livestock rearing and other alternative methods, and they supply top restaurants (e.g. NOMA), but in conflict with national organic standards body.	Dir. Phie Ambo
Growing Cities	1 h 37 m	2013	USA: A film examining the role of urban farming in America, asking how much power it has to revitalize our cities and change the way we eat.	Dir: Daniel Susman, co-writer Andrew Monbouquette
Hungry for Change	1 h 29 m	2012	Exposes ‘secrets’ of diet and weight loss - deceptive food industries strategies designed to keep you coming back for more.	Dir: James Colquhoun & Laurentine Ten Bosch
Ingredients: The Local Food Movement takes Root	1 h 13 m	2009	USA: American food is crisis: obesity and diabetes, family farms in decline and environment in jeopardy. The film explores a local food movement, seeking more flavour and nutrition to bring good food back to the table and health back to communities. Contributions from Alice Waters and several restaurateurs.	Dir: Robert Bates
Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story	75 m	2014	USA/UK (focus on USA). Filmmakers and food lovers Jen & Grant look at the issue of food waste, from farm to fridge. After catching a glimpse of billions of dollars of good food tossed away each year in North America, they pledge to survive only on discarded food.	Dir: Grant Baldwin
Local Food Roots	35 m	2014	UK: The emergence of innovative local food movement from a handful of pioneers in the early 90s to diverse UK-wide movement; first organic box schemes to today’s local food culture.	f3/Sprout Films Joy Carey co-producer & scriptwriter
Moo Man	97 m	2013	UK: Filmed over 4 years on marshes of the Pevensey Levels, maverick farmer Stephen Hook turns his back on cost-cutting dairies and supermarkets, and instead stays small and family-run to keep a close relationship with his herd of cows.	Dir: Andy Heathcote
More than Honey	92 m	2013	Switzerland/Germany/Austria: Delightful, informative & suitably contemplative study of the bee world. State-of-the-art film making (with surprisingly up-closes) looks at why bee populations worldwide are collapsing. English version narrated by John Hurt.	Film by Markus Imhoof
Noma: My Perfect Storm	1 h 40 m	2015	Focus on chef and Noma co-owner René Redzepi’s work, as he searches for inspiration in Denmark and reflects on the Copenhagen restaurant’s success. The restaurant helped bring Scandinavian food to the world’s attention. The films looks at foraging and local food sourcing.	Dir: Pierre Deschamps
Open Sesame: The Story of Seeds	82 m	2014	Protecting endangered seed varieties (90% of fruit & veg varieties existing 100 years ago are gone. Maintaining remaining seed biodiversity essential to breed new varieties resistant to pests or that will thrive in temperature extremes and a changing climate.	Film by Sean Kaminsky
Raising Shrimp	52 m	2013	USA: Shrimp is the most popular seafood in the USA, but 90% is imported and most of that is farmed. How is shrimp farmed? Is it safe to eat? What happened to the American shrimp fishery?  Among questions asked.	Film by Joe Cunningham  & Ted Caplow
Slow Food Story	1 h 14 m	2013	Italy/Ireland: In 1986, Carlo Petrini founded the ArciGola Gastronomic Association in Italy and 3 years later launched Slow Food, an international anti-fast-food resistance movement. From the tiny town of Bra, home to some 27,000 inhabitants, the Slow Food movement has grown to become a revolution that now has roots in more than 150 countries. Cheese-makers, vintners, and artisanal food folk, toast Slow Food for bringing about a change in consciousness that shook the very foundation of gastronomy. Featuring Carlo Petrini and narrated by Azio Citi.	Dir: Stefano Sardo
Slow Food Videos	1 m – 20 min		Range of Slow Food videos on all aspects of Slow Food’s campaigns.
Seeds of Time	77 m	2013	USA: The story of Cary Fowler's drive to collect seeds and create a seed bank to preserve agricultural biodiversity - the Svalbard Global Seed Vault on the arctic island of Spitsbergen, Norway.	Dir: Sandy McLeod
Symphony of the Soil	103 m	2012	USA: An artistic exploration of soil. By understanding elaborate relationships and mutuality between soil, water, atmosphere, plants and animals, we come to appreciate the complex & dynamic nature of this precious resource. Includes use/misuse of soil in agriculture etc worldwide and soil’s key role in ameliorating the most challenging environmental issues of our time.	A film by Deborah Koons Garcia
The Clean Bin Project	76 m	2011	USA: Is it possible to live completely waste free? Partners Jen & Grant go head to head in a competition to swear off consumerism and produce the least garbage [focus on packaging/ecological impacts]	Dir: Grant Baldwin
The Farmer and The Horse	1 h 17 m	2010	USA: Film about sustainability, self-sufficiency, and why we do the work we do. Difficulties and satisfaction of organic farming, through one New Jersey farmer’s experience (doesn’t use a tractor). Concerns land use, the environment, and good food.	Film by Jared Flesher
The Last Catch (15)	85& 52 m	2012	Germany: Fish stocks facing collapse. Focus on Bluefin tuna. Modern big business, traditional family fishing business and industry critic POVs.	Dir: Markus Schmidt
This Changes Everything	89 m	2015	USA/Canada. Filmed in 9 countries/5 continents over 4 years, this documentary looks at the vast challenge of climate change. Inspired by Naomi Klein's bestseller.	Dir: Avi Lewis