Whole Foods Market annual Do Something Reel Film Festival returns online this year with its usual collection of films about food and environmental issues.
The festival opens April 22, with a live screening of “The Apple Pushers,” narrated by Academy Award nominee Edward Norton, and follows five immigrant street-cart vendors who are offering fruits and vegetables in New York neighborhoods where fresh produce isn’t widely available. The vendors, who take part in a unique urban experiment called The NYC Green Cart Initiative, personify what it means to be an American entrepreneur, and their stories shed new light on the nation’s food crisis and skyrocketing obesity rates.
“The film chronicles first-generation immigrant micro-entrepreneurs who are infusing low income communities with fresh fruits and vegetables,” said Mazzio. “Whole Foods Market’s emphasis on providing access to healthy and nutritious foods makes them an ideal partner in helping us to expand the message of the film.”
Each month the festival will showcase a different film online that will be available for purchase. The films slated through August are:
“Watershed” – Directed by Mark Decena, executive produced by Robert Redford and produced by his son, James Redford, the film follows Rocky Mountain National Park fly fishing guide, Jeff Ehlert, and six others living and working in the Colorado River basin. The film illustrates the river’s struggle to support thirty million people across the western U.S. and Mexico as the peace-keeping agreement known as the Colorado River Pact is reaching its limits. (May)
“Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us?”– A profound, alternative look at the bee crisis from Taggart Siegel, award-winning director of “The Real Dirt on Farmer John.” On a journey through the catastrophic disappearance of bees and the mysterious world of the beehive, the film weaves together a story of the heart-felt struggles of beekeepers, scientists and philosophers from around the world and uncovers the long-term causes that could create one of our most urgent food crises. (June)
Ian Cheney Retrospective: “King Corn” and “Truck Farm” – Each of the films Cheney has created or co-created spotlights an important environmental or food issue, from mobile gardens to the subsidized crops fueling our fast-food nation. Cheney was last year’s Whole Foods Market and AFI-Silverdocs grant recipient for his new work-in-progress, “Bluespace.” (July)
“Lunch Line” – Co-directed by Ernie Park and Michael Graziano, this film offers a fresh perspective on the politics of food and child-nutrition through an examination of the surprising past, uncertain present, and possible future of the National School Lunch Program. The film reframes the school lunch debate through archival footage, expert interviews, and the uplifting story of six kids from one of the toughest neighborhoods in Chicago who set out to fix school lunches — and end up at the White House. (August)
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