Farm to Table

Farm to Table

How to view: http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/farm_to_table


Director: | Producer: The International Documentary Challenge is a timed filmmaking competition where filmmakers have 5 days to make a short non-fiction film

Produced | Country: USA

Run Time: 5 min | Language: English  

Synopsis: The story of how far our economic world has been separated from the natural world.

Opinion: Respect and imitate Mother Nature, go back to the past

Very simple message in a very short film.

Recommendation:

Ripe for Change

Ripe For Change

How to view: http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/ripe_for_change

Director: Emiko Omori | Producer: Jed Riffe

Produced | Country: United States 

Run Time: 54 Minutes | Language: English 

Synopsis: California -- always a fascinating marriage of opposite extremes -- is at a cross-roads in agriculture. Many Californians are struggling to fend off overdevelopment and the loss of farming lands and traditions while embracing innovative visions of agricultural sustainability. At the same time, California is where fast food was born and a center of the biotechnology industry and large corporate agribusiness. The debates raging in California over issues of food, agriculture, and sustainability have profound implications for all of America, especially in a world where scarcity is the norm and many natural resources are diminishing.

This fascinating documentary explores the intersection of food and politics in California over the last 30 years. It illuminates the complex forces struggling for control of the future of California's agriculture, and provides provocative commentary by a wide array of eloquent farmers, prominent chefs, and noted authors and scientists.
Opinion: The film examines a host of thorny questions: What are the trade-offs between the ability to produce large quantities of food versus the health of workers, consumers, and the planet? What are the hidden costs of "inexpensive" food? How do we create sustainable agricultural practices?

Recommendation:

The Farm Sanctuary

The Farm Sanctuary

How to view: http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/the_farm_sanctuary

Director: | Producer: Fly Up Media

Produced | Country: USA

Run Time: 6mins | Language: English

Synopsis: The Farm Sanctuary is the nation's leading farm animal protection organization. Since incorporating in 1986, they have worked to expose and stop cruel practices of the factory farming industry through research and investigations, legal and legislative actions, public awareness projects, youth education, and direct rescue and shelter efforts.

Maryann Hedaa, the head of Saint Ignatius School, sent the fifth grade boys to learn documentary filmmaking while visiting The Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glens, NY. She hoped to teach her students about farm factories and abused animals while also exposing her students to filmmaking as a creative outlet. Since the completion of the film, student groups from Saint Ignatius continue to travel to The Farm Sanctuary to learn about practices of farm factories.

Opinion: Adorable! More about fifth graders sleeping over at a farm than the work on the Farm Sanctuary!

Stand Up Planet

Stand Up Planet

How to view: Watch a sneak peak of the television premier http://www.standupplanet.org/2014/03/tune-in/
The show premiers on May 14th 2014 on Pivot, Link TV and KCET Los Angeles

Director: David Munro  | Producer: Wendy Hanamura

Produced | Country: USA

Run Time: | Language: English

Synopsis: Stand Up Planet began with a hypothesis: the world is full of struggle. Comedy comes from adversity. This must be one hilarious planet. To prove it, they ventured around the globe to places dealing with serious issues. The world's highest HIV infection rate in South Africa. A sanitation crisis of staggering proportion in India.
Punchlines were unmistakable - spilling out of huts, shacks, and makeshift comedy clubs. The sound of laughter everywhere, led by young rebel heroes of a new stand up insurgency who were slaying eager audiences with the truth.
Stand up Plant followed jokes into the lives of the joke tellers - fearless members of an exploding global comedy underground who are raising their voices, making people laugh and making people think.


Opinion: There is nothing inherently funny about hunger, poverty an disease. But there is something powerful - affirming about laughing in the face of hardship. Humor is humanity's antibody to defeat, and it is as much about survivals the air we breathe.

Recommendation: Why not do a screening in your city on May 14? The film does not prescribe solutions to poverty, so be prepared to speak with your audience and bridge the solutions and call to action to support US foreign aid and aid transparency.

Love Letter to Food (2014)

TITLE:  Love Letter to Food (2014)

Viewer (optional): Brian Rawson

How to view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5i-dCv7O8o  

Director: | Producer: Univ of MN, Food Policy Research Center
Produced | Country: USA
Run Time:  3 mins 22 seconds   | Language: English

Synopsis:  Clever and compelling illustration of the problem of food waste

Opinion: Effective, entertaining.  And it features Oxfam Action Corps MN member, Liz Harper!

Recommendation: Show at GROW Method meals or when presenting on food waste.

Pregnant and Working in the Fields

Seven Months Pregnant and Working in the Fields 

How to view: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26154092

Director: | Producer: Sonia Narang 

Produced | Country: Nepal 

Run Time: 2 minutes 24 seconds  | Language: Nepali (English subtitles) 

Synopsis: Women in Nepal do the lion's share of agricultural work, and it's common for them to continue working in the fields throughout pregnancy. But this can seriously affect their health, and that of their unborn child.

Opinion: Read the fill article on the BBC page along with the video. 

The Reality of Food Aid: Bill Pritchard

The Reality of Food Aid: Bill Pritchard 

How to view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJc0tYNGcWo

Director: TEDx | Producer: TED Talks

Produced | Country: Australia 

Run Time: 13.05 minutes | Language: English 

Synopsis: Bill Pritchard, human geographer, challenges our views on what it takes to create a food-secure world. Bill is an Associate Professor in Geography at the University of Sydney, where he teaches and researches on food, agriculture and rural and regional development. He embraces a geographer's passion to understand the world, believing that the best way to understand an issue is to see it first hand and talk directly to the people involved.

Opinion: Interesting insight into food aid from a geographical perspective.