| After a couple of false starts (whistle blows - "5 yards, Jay, still first down.") last weekend, I finally made it out to the beautiful Bagdad Theater just up 39th from me here in Southeast Portland on Sunday to catch the screening of the new food documentary Ingredients, which was also a benefit for Portland Public Schools' Eat, Think, Grow farm-to-school program. I once again partook in that great Portland tradition of sitting down for a movie with a craft brew... and okay, also a contraband (!) bag of roasted Oregon hazelnuts which I snuck into the theater as a snack. Shoot me, or beat me with a leek or something.
Anyways. On to the review, below the fold... |
| Ingredients is the latest in the recent line of feature-length food documentaries focusing on the benefits of improving our food system from the soil on up, and the way people are making it happen from coast to coast. Much of the film takes place here in Oregon, but Portland filmmakers Brian Kimmel and Robert Bates still take us out to farms, farmers' markets and restaurants in places like New York and Ohio to show once again that our goals can be achieved anywhere food grows.
There isn't going to be anything new here in this film for those of us who follow food issues closely, and have already seen Fresh, Food Inc, and other recent films along these lines; but of course we don't need to be swayed much in the first place, while it's great that these films exist for the true target audience here - the masses of people out there who realize that something's wrong but can't quite put a finger on it. That's what this film can do. "Put a finger on it" for those who aren't on the blogs, for those who don't follow this stuff obsessively like most of us here do. How does it score on that count? Well, let's just say that while John Sterling would probably not be inspired to break out a "Foodies win! Theeeeeeeee foodies win!" call; a soccer announcer just might be sufficiently excited enough to yell "gooooooooooallllll!".
As for me, I'll say that I enjoyed this film, and it was fun to see some of the people I regularly support at the farmers' markets here in Portland up on the screen, being interviewed on their farms. Highlights include talks with Anthony and Carol Boutard of Ayers Creek Farm in Gaston, Oregon (regularly found at the year-round Sunday Hillsdale Farmers' Market in SW Portland, where you'll always find tons of fantastic beans and great rare stuff like grits and heirloom popcorn), Laura Masterson from Portland's own urban 47th Avenue Farm, and a trip to Erie County, Ohio to hear from Lee and Bob Jones at The Chef's Garden. Others featured include Greg Higgins, Cory Schreiber, Joan Dye Gussow, Gary Paul Nabhan and Alice Waters. You can find a screening, find out how to host one in your town, or pre-order a DVD from their website here. |
