News

August 1, 2009 - [ Los Angeles Times Calendar ]

How does one expose the secret systematic slaughter of 23,000 dolphins?

It helps to have a billionaire, plus a dedicated activist, a neophyte filmmaker, two of the world's best free-divers, a former avionics specialist from the Canadian Air Force, a logistics whiz trained in transporting pop-music stars around the world, a maritime technician, a military infrared camera for night cinematography, unmanned aerial drones, a blimp and fake rocks specially designed by George Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic to hold secret cameras.

Also required? A willingness to risk arrest, police harassment and potentially much worse.

July 28, 2009 - [ New York Magazine ]

The year’s best caper flick is a documentary.

Director Louie Psihoyos knows the secret to making a boffo activist documentary: a kick-ass narrative, surprising twists, heroes you root for, and bad guys you despise. The Cove is built like a slick caper melodrama (someone onscreen invokes Ocean’s Eleven), its protagonist a man who has sinned in his own eyes and now spends his life trying to atone. He’s Ric O’Barry, the trainer who got rich training the dolphins that would be Flipper (in the original series) and had a crisis of conscience when the show went off the air and one of the five dolphins who played him went into a downward suicidal spiral (really) in an aquarium tank. Dolphins, he says, don’t belong in captivity. They’re too smart, too soulful, and that smile isn’t really a smile. They’re crying on the inside.

July 24, 2009 - [ Wall St. Journal/Life & Style ]

To document the secretive slaughter of dolphins in the Japanese fishing village of Taiji, a team of American filmmakers embarked on a clandestine mission, armed with thermal cameras, a miniature drone helicopter and camouflaged props from a Hollywood special-effects studio.

“The Cove,” opening July 31, originated with the meeting of first-time director Louie Psihoyos, a veteran National Geographic photographer, and activist Ric O’Barry. Mr. O’Barry trained the dolphin actors for “Flipper,” the 1960s television series. After seeing the animals he worked with distressed and dying in captivity, he spent decades trying to free dolphins from marine parks around the world.

July 14, 2009 - [ Hollywood Reporter ]

Consumers can get a side of knowledge with their next burrito.

Chipotle Mexican Grill has partnered with Magnolia Pictures, Participant Media and River Road Entertainment to promote the documentary "Food, Inc."

Beginning Tuesday, the chain will sponsor free screenings of the film in 32 U.S. cities. It will also place promotional material in all of its more than 860 restaurants.
 

June 21, 2009 - [ Variety ]

The feature audience award went to docu The Cove, directed by Louie Psihoyos, as the 14th Nantucket Film Festival wrapped Sunday, handing out eight prizes.
Pic also nabbed the fest's prize for best storytelling in a documentary film.

Documentary, which bowed at Sundance in January, concerns a quest to uncover the slaughter of dolphins in a hidden cove in Japan. Roadside Attractions will release the pic on July 31.

June 20, 2009 - [ New York Times ]

Growing up on a farm near Yamhill, Ore., I quickly learned to appreciate the difference between fresh, home-grown foods and the commercial versions in the supermarket.
Store-bought lettuce was always lush, green and pristine, and thus vastly preferable to lettuce from my Mom’s vegetable garden (organic before we called it that). Her lettuce kept me on my toes, because a caterpillar might come crawling out of my salad.
We endured endless elk and venison — my Dad is still hunting at age 90 — or ate beef from steers raised on our own pasture, but “grass-fed” had no allure for me. I longed for delicious, wholesome food that my friends in town ate. Like hot dogs.

June 18, 2009 - [ ABC News Nightline ]

A new documentary, makes claims about the hidden costs of cheap food.
'Food, Inc.' Exposes the Hidden World of Food Production

June 16, 2009 - [ GRIST ]

A quiz, dear Grist reader, to determine if you should see the new documentary ‘Food, Inc.’  (You start with 0 points. Total your points as you answer the questions.):

June 16, 2009 - [ CNN ]

What are we eating? Who knows? 
Is the business of food production killing us? Maybe.

June 15, 2009 - [ FT.com Stefan Stern ]

Can you become a billionaire by accident? It seems unlikely. Surely wealth of that kind has to be fought for and won against almost impossible odds. Billionaires, you might think, should be imposing figures, battle-hardened veterans from the financial world.

June 15, 2009 - [ Philadelphia Daily News LAUREN F. FRIEDMAN ]

"FOOD, INC." was not an easy movie to make. Director Robert Kenner originally planned to talk to everyone involved in the food production process, from farmers to mega-corporations - but he kept hitting walls. "These people did not want to talk me," Kenner said. "They don't want you to know what you're eating."
"Food, Inc." pulls back the curtain on the industrial food system in the United States and connects the dots between factory farming and E. coli outbreaks, government subsidies and the diabetes epidemic - even slaughterhouses and illegal immigration. Kenner summarized it simply: "The system is broken."
While the documentary, which opens in Philadelphia on Friday, urges consumers to think carefully about food, the goal was never to turn everyone into vegans. "I don't want to tell people what to eat," Kenner explained. "I want people to have a right to know what's in their food."

June 14, 2009 - [ Washington Post ]

Robert Kenner never considered himself a foodie. He was like most people, mindlessly plucking products from the grocery store shelves. Making his new documentary, "Food Inc.," which shows how our food is produced, changed all that. The director spoke to Jane Black of The Post's Food section about the film, the vicious backlash and the one thing he'll never eat again. Excerpts:

June 14, 2009 - [ Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea ]

Look at Food, Inc., the documentary opening Friday at the Ritz at the Bourse, and the picture is altogether different: cattle standing hoof-deep in their own excrement in giant meat-processing plants, chickens pumped up on chemicals to make them fat and packed into hangars where they never see the light of day, genetically engineered tomatoes that have no taste - it's scary stuff.

June 12, 2009 - [ THE EXAMINER.COM ]

The absolute best opportunity to talk about modern food production has arrived thanks to Robert Kenner, Executive Director of a movie just released in a theater near you called Food Inc. It could quite possibly be the most misleading bit of information I have ever witnessed about American Agriculture but it has everyone interested in what is really going on with today’s food system. There is one little catch: it is only an opportunity if you are willing to stand up and set the record straight. The American food system, starting at the farm, is the envy of the world in that no one else feeds and clothes their nation with a higher percentage of domestically produced foods with fewer resources impacted to get it done. As one individual put it, Food Inc is the most selective portrayal of information ever generated. The question is: Are you going to fill in the blanks?

June 12, 2009 - [ Newsweek ]

The last few years have been interesting times for food and eating habits, as "slow food," locavores and farmer's markets have entered mainstream conversations about how we eat. This spring saw Michelle Obama planting the first garden on White House grounds since the era of President Roosevelt. One of the Pied Pipers leading the movement to eat more fresh, local fruits, vegetables and meats has been author Michael Pollan.

June 12, 2009 - [ NPR - Morning Edition ]

The new documentary Food Inc. takes aim at corporate giants behind the U.S. food supply. As director Robert Kenner and food advocate and author Michael Pollan tell Steve Inskeep, they made the film in order to raise Americans' awareness about where their food really comes from.

June 12, 2009 - [ Los Angeles Times Tina Daunt ]

Food issues don't end with fishing
 
Just in case you were planning to avoid all the issues raised by overfishing -- not to mention the lingering questions over hormones and antibiotics in beef and the conditions in those industrial chicken coops -- by sticking with processed foods, think again.
 
Food, Inc., a documentary opening today, explores this country's large-scale food production conglomerates and the toll their products take on public health.

June 11, 2009 - [ Los Angeles Times ]

The movie "Food, Inc." opens in several cities, including Los Angeles, on Friday. It's a critical look at the way food in the United States is produced. ("You'll never want to eat again," commented a colleague who's seen the movie already.)

June 9, 2009 - [ ABC News ]

Director Robert Kenner said his new movie about the path food takes to our dinner tables is a "horror film." Food, Inc. paints a vivid picture of the food we eat -- where it comes from, how it's made and what it's doing to our bodies.
Click on this link to read entire story 
Click on this link to watch video of broadcast piece
 
 

June 7, 2009 - [ New York Times ]

Food, Inc. is part of a new generation of food films that drip with politics, not sauces. It’s eat-your-peas cinema that could make viewers not want to eat anything at all.