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Jiro Dreams of Sushi[/caption]
The world’s largest culinary film festival, Devour! The Food Film Fest (Devour!) will present 74 food-and beverage-focused films from 21 countries, running the gamut from eye-opening feature length documentaries to quirky and engaging short flicks at the eighth edition. Devour’s 2018 programming centers around this year’s overall theme of “The Power of Food and Film to Transform”.
“Film is a powerful medium that can help shine a spotlight on important issues, spark conversations, inspire others and promote meaningful change,” said Devour! Managing Director Lia Rinaldo. “We are experiencing a cultural shift where many of us are rejecting the status quo and looking to transform our lives. As a result, the culinary industry, among others, is going through this period of upheaval and transition, which we strived to reflect in this year’s slate of inspiring and impactful films that explore topics from food waste, sustainability, food security, environmental impact, gender equality, discrimination and politics, to name a few.”
The 2018 lineup includes 28 thought-provoking feature films including eOne’s Jiro Dreams of Sushi about 85-year-old sushi chef Jiro Ono, the proprietor of a three-star Michelin sushi restaurant inauspiciously located in a Tokyo subway station. The film will open the festival on Wednesday, October 24 and was personally selected by 2018 Festival Guest Curator Sam Kass, the former White House Chef for the Obama family and a healthy food activist. Each year, the festival’s opening guest presents their favorite food film of all time; the only retro title in the program.
Film highlights include the Thursday night gala film
André – The Voice of Wine about André Tchelistchef, the godfather of California winemaking, directed by his nephew Mark Tchelistchef who will be in attendance; the Canadian premiere of returning filmmaker Gab Taraboulsy’s feature length biopic
Funke, chronicling Chef Evan Funke as he sets up one of the hottest restaurants in Los Angeles, Felix Trattoria; the world premiere of the Canadian documentary Six Primrose, which chronicles the dramatic impact of accessing healthy food on the community of Dartmouth, NS; and the inspiring documentary
Charged: The Eduardo Garcia Story, chronicling Chef Eduardo’s recovery following a freak accident. Chef Eduardo Garcia is attending the Festival as a featured chef and will participate in the Celebrity Chef Dinner on Friday, October 26, alongside other top chefs still to be announced.
Devour! will screen several films that document the success of women and the challenges they face in the male-dominated culinary industry.
A Fine Line, directed by Joanna James, explores why only six per cent of head chefs and restaurant owners are women and documents the rise of some of the most celebrated women in the industry including the World’s Best Female Chef and Devour! alumna Dominique Crenn and Emmy Award-winning TV Host Lidia Bastianich. Canadian Director Maya Gallus’
The Heat: A Kitchen (R)evolution profiles seven female chefs facing daunting professional obstacles, harassment and toxic environments. Thirty-six per cent of this year’s film program is directed by women.
The Festival will close with a feature drama from prominent Nova Scotia director Thom Fitzgerald.
Splinters is an intimate drama about sexual identity, family and life in small-town Nova Scotia, filmed on an apple farm in the Annapolis Valley, mere minutes from the film fest’s location. This year’s program marks the festival’s largest program of Canadian content on screen at 32 percent of the films, including 17 per cent from Atlantic Canada.
Devour! will showcase 45 short films, including David Ma’s Hollywood-inspired recipe video series filmed in the aesthetic style of famous filmmakers: What if Alfonso Cuaron Made Pancakes?, What if Michael Bay Made Waffles?, What If Quentin Tarantino Made Spaghetti & Meatballs and What If Wes Anderson Made S’mores?. Additional programming includes six visually stunning films about Nova Scotia from the award-winning team behind the The Perennial Plate, and selections from returning filmmaker Kevin Kossowan’s James Beard Award Nominated Canadian series, From the Wild: Bay of Fundy and From the Wild: Devour! Edition.
A highlight of the festival program is the return of the Devour Road Show Celebrity Chef Dinner on Saturday, October 27, where a special program of five short films will be screened right in the barrel cellar of Lightfoot & Wolfville Winery, with chefs pulling their inspiration for their dishes right from the films.
All films are eligible for the Devour! Golden Tine Awards in five categories–Best Short Documentary, Best Short Drama, Best Feature Documentary, Best Feature Drama and Best Animation–chosen by an esteemed jury: Anita Stewart (Founder of Food Day Canada), Greg Rubidge (Syndicado Film Sales) and Dan Clapson (Eat North). The Awards Brunch will take place on Sunday, October 28 at Lightfoot & Wolfville Winery.
The 2018 Festival film screenings are:
FEATURE-LENGTH FILMS
All the Time in the World Suzanne Crocker | Canada
THURSDAY NIGHT GALA SCREENING:
André – The Voice of Wine Mark Tchelistcheff | USA/Germany
As Needed (Quanto Basta) Francesco Falaschi | Italy/Brazil
The BBQ Stephen Amis | Australia
FRIDAY NIGHT SPOTLIGHT GALA SCREENING:
Charged: The Eduardo Garcia Story Phillip Baribeau | USA
Chef Flynn Cameron Yates | USA
Constructing Albert Laura Collado & Jim Loomis | Spain/Estonia
The Devil We Know Stephanie Soechtig & Jeremy Seifert | USA
The Empire of Red Gold Xavier Deleu & Jean-Baptiste Malet | France
A Fine Line Joanna James | USA
From Seed to Seed Katharina Stieffenhofer | Canada
Funke Gab Taraboulsy | USA/Italy
The Heat: A Kitchen (R)evolution Maya Gallus | Canada
OPENING NIGHT GALA SCREENING:
Jiro Dreams of Sushi David Gelb | USA
Knife Skills Thomas Lennon | USA
Once Again Kanwal Sethi | Germany/India/Austria
Our Blood is Wine Emily Railsback | USA
A Polar Year (Une année polaire) Samuel Collardy | France
Scotch: A Golden Dream Andrew Peat | Taiwan/Scotland
Secret Ingredient Gjorce Stavreski | Macedonia
The Silver Branch Katrina Costello | Ireland
Six Primrose True Faux Films | Canada
Soufra Thomas Morgan | USA
CLOSING NIGHT GALA SCREENING:
Splinters Thom Fitzgerald | Canada
The Superfood Chain Ann Shin | Canada
Tazzeka Jean-Phillipe Gaud | France
There is No Place Like Home (A Casa Tutti Bene) Gabriele Muccino | Italy
ULAM: Main Dish Alexandra Cuerdo | USA
SHORT FILMS
America: The Ice Cream Truck The Perennial Plate | USA
Bao Domee Shi | USA
The Best Place to Tell Stories Kevin Kossowan | Canada
The Birth of Bread Matthew Pendergast | UK
The Bite House The Perennial Plate | Canada
Borscht & Fresh Bread Sarah Gignac | Canada
A Brief History of Acadians in Nova Scotia (and their food) The Perennial Plate | Canada
A Butcher’s Heart Wouter Jansen | Netherlands
Café de Temporada Maria Luisa Santos | USA
Chapters of Food: Mole is Mexico Barbara Anastacio | Mexico
Conad Compilation Stef Viaene | Italy
The Common Chameleon Tomer Eshed | Germany
Corky Ty Primosch | USA
Cosmic Connection James Boo | USA
Cups & Robbers Jim Simone | USA
Embrace the Blue Douglas Keir Blackmore | Canada
The Foolish Side of Food Luca Goudon | Italy
From the Wild: Bay of Fundy Kevin Kossowan | Canada
From the Wild: Devour! Edition Kevin Kossowan | Canada
Gefilte Rachel Fleit | USA
The Grey Zone Brian Gersten | USA
How Mr and Mrs Gock Saved the Kumara Felicity Morgan-Rhind | New Zealand
Is You Is My Baby Kelly Perine & Bry Sanders | Canada/USA
John Bil Shane Pendergast | Canada
Lightfoot & Wolfville The Perennial Plate | Canada
Make Love: Bar Ape James Reid | Canada
Mitsuharu Tsumura of Maido Jim Kane | Peru
Nova Scotia The Perennial Plate | Canada
On the Shores of This Bay The Perennial Plate | Canada
Proud to be Prairie James Reid | Canada
Pulled Strings Vicki Chau | Canada
Red Velvet Mahmoud Samir & Youssef Mahmoud | Egypt
A Rising Tide The Perennial Plate | Canada
Soul of a Nosh James Boo | USA
Style Points James Boo | USA
Thin Skinned Aaron Tilley | UK
Tibor Petra O’Toole | Canada
Tungrus Rishi Chandna | India
Virgilio and Malena Martinez Jim Kane | Peru
What If Alfonso Cuaron Made Pancakes? David Ma | USA
What If Michael Bay Made Waffles? David Ma | USA
What If Quentin Tarantino Made Spaghetti & Meatballs? David Ma | USA
What If Wes Anderson Made S’mores? David Ma | USA
Wild Mushroom and Venison with Jon Parry Jamie Orlando Smith | UK
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Flynn McGarry appears in Chef Flynn by Cameron Yates[/caption]
Nine documentaries and a fictional film focussing on the relationship between food, culture, and politics are being presented this year in the 12th Culinary Cinema at the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival, held under the motto “Life Is Delicate” from February 18 to 23, 2018.
“When it comes to cultural and political matters, sensitive decisions have to be made all the time. It’s like in a kitchen, where it’s also tricky to make, at the very least, something edible and, at the very best, something delicate,” Festival Director Dieter Kosslick says in explaining the motto.
The main program of Culinary Cinema will present three world premieres, as well as an international and a German premiere. Following these screenings, top chefs Thomas Bühner, Sonja Frühsammer, Michael Kempf, Flynn McGarry, and The Duc Ngo will take turns serving menus inspired by the films in the Gropius Mirror Restaurant.
Chef Flynn, a US documentary by Cameron Yates, will open the program. The film’s protagonist, Flynn McGarry, was born in 1998 and is already a famous chef. In the film we see how at the early age of ten, he transforms his parents’ living room in Los Angeles into a pop-up restaurant called Eureka and serves multi-course menus. Culinary superstars are impressed by his dishes. The New York press celebrates him as a ‘culinary prodigy’. In addition, on February 22, 2018, during “Youth Food Cinema” Day, Flynn McGarry will cook together with school kids. Afterwards he will talk with experts about how to prepare tasty food with good, clean and fair products, and the positive impact using them has on living conditions, the climate and sustainable development worldwide.
In La quête d’Alain Ducasse (The Quest of Alain Ducasse) by Gilles de Maistre, culinary visionary Ducasse defines his task: “We create memories that last.” To accomplish it he tirelessly travels the world, inspects his 23 restaurants on three continents and maintains his 18 Michelin stars.
Vines have been cultivated in Georgia for around 8,000 years. But during the Soviet regime, ancient methods of vinification were almost lost. In Our Blood Is Wine by Emily Railsback we experience how the tradition is being revived. Michael Kempf (two Michelin stars, “Facil”, Berlin) will be interpreting Georgia’s gastronomic heritage.
In Cuba, culinary traditions were also being neglected for a long time. But now they say that “the taste is back” on the island. The road movie Cuban Food Stories by Asori Soto takes us to remote places where delicacies are prepared al fresco. Sonja Frühsammer (two Michelin stars, “Frühsammers Restaurant”, Berlin) will be paying culinary homage to Cuba.
After participating in 2016, director Eric Khoo will be returning to Culinary Cinema with his new fictional film, Ramen Teh, set in the multi-ethnic city state and nation of Singapore. Here food serves as a means not only to preserve painful memories, but also to achieve reconciliation.
The late-night screenings (where no meals are served afterwards) explore many aspects of the culinary cosmos. The Green Lie by Werner Boote unmasks the sometimes subtle, often crass methods of ‘greenwashing’ with which companies deceive consumers. In The Game Changers by Oscar-winner Louie Psihoyos, outstanding athletes show how they maintain a healthy weight and stay in form without eating meat. Patrimonio by Lisa F. Jackson and Sarah Teale is also encouraging: in this film, Mexicans manage to protect their village from takeover by a US construction company. How a group of women in a Lebanese refugee camp succeeds in organising a food truck and getting out of the camp is recounted in Soufra by Thomas Morgan. In Tuscany, the views of the landscape are magnificent but there is no future in sight for the peasant farmers in Lorello e Brunello by Jacopo Quadri.