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What's at the Movie Theater This Summer? Food!

You might think, on the heels of the recent Minneapolis debut of the documentaries "Fresh" by ana Sofia joanes, and "Food Inc," (expertly reviewed by Kristen at Food Renegade this week), that we've had our fill of food at the cinema this summer. Even James Bond only releases one movie each year, right? Wrong! Ladies and gentleman, welcome to the most intelligent movie-going summer in recorded history.

"Good" online features an overview of several other food-related films being released this summer, including "The Greenhorns," "Killer at Large," "Food Fight," and "The End of the Line." While each of the films, in the words of Good.is's Peter Smith, "seems to follow the tradition of narrative exposés like Fast Food Nation and Humane Society’s downer cow video," the short descriptions I've read of each - and the terrific information on their websites - lead me to believe that the films will be very different from one another. I'm especially excited to see "Food Fight," which features Alice Waters and Michael Pollan (who's also featured in several other summer food films), and "The Greenhornes", which focuses on farmers under the age of 40. "The End of the Line," about the perils of overfishing, looks unique and interesting as well.

While I liked last summer's The Dark Knight as much as next the person, I've never really been one to go after summer blockbusters. So the fact that there are so many movie makers thinking about food and creating meaningful films is incredibly exciting. After the "Fresh" screening, I spent some time with Todd from Thousand Hills Cattle Company. He and others were marvelling at the change in consumers' perceptions - and spending habits - related to good, local, sustainable food, encouraged and excited to see what comes of it this summer and ongoing. With companies like Gold'n Plump (Just BARE Chicken) and Walmart getting in on the local food bandwagon, its clear that the sustainable food movement's tipping point is within reach. I'm excited to watch these new documentaries and see what happens. I'm also planning to help things along, if I can. :-)