A tale of two films

The Vancouver International Film Festival ran for the last couple of weeks and I was fortunately able to take in several movies. Two that I chose ended up being interesting complements to each other. I promise, this is about food...













The first was HomeGrown, an interesting look at an american family and their attempts to live off the land. Check out the details here and their own website here.
The second was eatrip, a Japanese documentary looking at people's relationship to food. A trailer here, but no subtitles, and a summary here.
HomeGrown was a fascinating look at what can be accomplished if you just but your mind (and back) to it. An inspiring film, I was ready to leap up out of my seat and run home and plant things...
Eatrip was a visual love letter to food. Every person interviewed was passionate about eating and all for different reasons. My favourite was a 90 year old priest who said
"We eat 3 times a day. I have eaten three times a day for 90 years and I am still not sick of it." All the interviews were interspersed with beautiful footage of cooking, stark photos of food and the places it comes from.
One of the interviewees was a homemaker from Okinawa, a woman who raised her two children on a homestead, growing all their own food, not using a refrigerator, living the simple life. As I watched her speak with joy about eating the seasons, enjoying what her garden gave to her, I was reminded of the Dervaes family (HomeGrown) gently complaining about eating the same thing day in and day out when it was in season...
I would reccommend both of these movies to anyone who cares about food and where it comes form, as well as the impact that we have on our planet.