FRESH the Movie -
New Thinking About What We're Eating
article and images courtesy of Fresh the Movie
FRESH is more than a movie, it’s a gateway to action. Our aim is to help grow FRESH food, ideas, and become active participant in an exciting, vibrant, and fast-growing movement. FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet.
Fresh recaptures our sense of agency and makes us believe that our individual actions in fact do matter. Throughout the dim we encounter the most inspiring people, ideas, and initiatives arou
nd the US. And thus, Fresh showcases real people first and foremost, connecting audiences not with facts and figures or apocalyptic policy analysis, but with person stories of change.
Among several main characters, Fresh features:
Will Allen, a 6ft 7″ former professional basketball player,is now one of the most influential leaders of the food security & urban farming movement. His farm and not-for-profit, Growing Power, have trained and inspired people in every corner of the US to start growing food sustainably. This man and his organization go beyond growing food. They provide a platform for people to share knowledge and form relationships in order to develop alternatives to the industrial food system.
Joel Salatin writes in his website that he is “in the redemption business: healing the l
and, healing the food, healing the economy, and healing the culture.” And if you visited his farm in Swoope, Virginia, you’d know he means it & lives it! He produces beef, chicken, eggs, turkey, rabbits, and forestry product. Yet, Joel calls himself a grass-farmer, for it is the grass that transforms the sun into energy that his animals can then feed on. By closely observing nature, Joel created a rotational grazing system that not only allows the land to heal but also allows the animals to behave the way the were meant to – as in expressing their “chicken-ness” or “pig-ness”, as Joel would say.
With the rise of Wal-Mart and other big chains, David Ball saw his family-run supermarket dying, along with a once-thriving local farm community. So he reinvented his business, partnering with area farmers to sell loc
ally-grown food and specialty food products at an affordable price. His plan has brought the local economy back to life.
Producer Ana Joanes is a Swiss-born documentary fimmaker whose work addresses pressing social issues through character-driven narratives. After Traveling internationally to study the environmental adn cultural impacts of globalization, she graduated from Columbia Law School in may 2000, awarded as a Stone Scholar and Human Rights Fellow. Thereafter, Ana created Reel Yough, a video production program for youth coming out of detention. In 2003, Ana and her friend Andrew Unger produced Generation Meds, a documentaryexploring our fears and misgivings about mental illness and medication. Fresh is Ana's second feature documentary.
Don't Watch This Film Alone! We believe screening FRESH can create a ripple effect and help us reach a tipping point where sustainable food is no longer a niche market but mainstream. If you share this film with just 10 people, you are helping tremendously in our journey towards a more sustainable food system. Host a screening for your friends! Have a locally-sourced potluck and discuss the film when it’s done over some delicious food! See our website for details about our unique grassroots distribution model.
article and images courtesy of Fresh the Movie