Nevermind the Oscars, what's for dinner?

February 28, 2013 7:00 PM

The food documentary is a ripening genre complete with its own film festival circuit.

On the menu for 2013 are Symphony of the Soil and Edible City, but fans of tatertots should check out the school lunch documentary Lunch Line.

Two to chew on for the carnivores: Meat Hooked! and American Meat. Pescetarians can polish off End of the Line

Prefer your films dry-aged instead of freshly slaughtered?

City mice can gnaw on the Detroit agricultural revival Urban Roots or What's On Your Plate?

Got a strong stomach? Films that pull back the curtain on food production, besides the Marion Nestle-recommended Food Inc., include the immigration op-ed American Harvest and the elegiac, voice-over-free Our Daily Bread.

You might have caught Jiro Dreams of Sushi back in 2012 but try also chewing on Dream Cuisine for a post-colonial eulogy to Chinese cuisine... in Tokyo.

Previously, a list of short food-related films and films (or books) on factory farming

posted by spamandkimchi (6 comments total)

I thought this would be a Food Fight-roll.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 7:05 PM on February 28

What can I watch online?
posted by mudpuppie at 7:53 PM on February 28

eponysterical
posted by univac at 8:00 PM on February 28 [1 favorite]

Here are the trailers for Edible City, End of the Line, Lunch Line, Meat Hooked, Urban Roots, What's on Your Plate.

American Harvest has an 18-minute version uploaded to Youtube.
posted by spamandkimchi at 9:56 PM on February 28

There are tons of them on Netflix too.
posted by smackfu at 5:16 AM on March 1

American Harvest's website is pretty tinhatty, and the featurette linked was really frustrating to me--constant reiteration of how American agriculture relies on migrant workers, with no interest in examining the systematic exploitation that allows that situation to exist. It kind of sucks that since Harvest of Shame, nothing really seems to have changed, except that there's no one examining the subject with the same incisiveness.

OTOH, I'm watching End of the Line now and it is great--excellently written and beautifully shot.
posted by kagredon at 3:00 PM on March 3 [1 favorite]