Food-related film at the Berlin International Film Festival
February 9, 2006
Pack up your yurt, we’re moving to the steppes of Berlin for a week, where it’s much colder than it was in Rotterdam, and where a yurt will come in handy. The craziness begins today at the Berlinale, the Berlin International Film Festival. Culiblog will be attending the madness for an entire week, from Saturday the 11th until the 19th, reporting on all food-related films and presentations.
This year there is a glut of food-related film because aside from the regular programme, food, hunger and taste are the subject of the Berlinale Talent Campus, a platform within the Berlinale festival. The Berlinale Talent Campus creates opportunities for young filmmakers to meet with les eminences grises from the film industry and the folks from the more active side of food and food culture as well. Alice Waters, Vandana Shiva, Carlo Petrini will all be there.
Once again, I’ve created a culiblog food-related film selection culled form the entire Berlinale programme for those willing to move beyond Babette’s Feast. Oh dear, it’s 2006 and they’re actually showing Babette’s Feast!
The culiblog selection at the the 56th International Berlinale Film Festival:
Saturday, 11.02.2006:
23:00: - Harvest (Regain), a Marcel Pagnol classic! (Manon de la Source)Sunday, 12.02.2006
18:00: - Berlin Talent Campus Screening - Food For Thought: Origins: Tom Luddy will present all 32 Talent short films on “Hunger, Food and Taste” in three sessions, beginning at 18:00. Today’s programme “Origins” will include eleven short films from seven different countries. In between the screenings, Tom Luddy will introduce the Talent directors and discuss their reflections on “Hunger, Food and Taste”.
10:30: - Eat and Shoot the Indie Way, presentation with a.o. Alice Waters, Angie Lam, Vandana Shiva and Slow Food’s Carlo Petrini
12:15: - Who Owns Life? Talk with Vandana Shiva and Renate Künast
16:30: - Talk with Peter Kubelka: Cooking as the Origin of Culture…
17:30: - One Way Boogie Woogie / 27 Years Later, James Benning
Monday, 13.02.2006
18:00: - Berlin Talent Campus Screening -
14:00: - The Case for Taste, lecture and screening of Nossiter’s Mondovino with Carlo Petrini a.o.
Food For Thought: Delicious Revolution: Today’s Food for Thought session is hosted by US-director Doug Hamilton. His film ALICE WATERS AND THE DELICIOUS REVOLUTION is a documentary about the ideas and ideals of natural food specialist Alice Waters, who has been practicing and sharing with the world her healthy and environmentally conscious principles for nearly thirty years. After the screening, director Doug Hamilton will answer questions.
20:30: - Mondovino, Jonathan NossiterTuesday, 14.02.2006
18:00: - Berlin Talent Campus Screening -
12:30: - Matthew Barney: No Restraint, Alison Chernick
18:00: - Berlin Talent Campus Screening - Food For Thought: “Kill or Die” is today’s screening of a new round of shorts from the Campus competition “Films on Hunger, Food and Taste”. Tom Luddy will present ten filmmakers from eight countries and talk about their cinematic stories about the relationship between food and death, about the often hidden fact that for some, eating means killing, and about food, fear and devotion.
18:45: - Drawing Restraint 9, Matthew Barney Wednesday, 15.02.2006
18:00: - Food For Thought: Lost Supper: A screening of the Berlinale Talent Campus films on “Hunger, Food and Taste” is dedicated to films that deal with hunger, starvation and poverty in the world. Eleven short film productions from eleven countries explore the unjust manner of food distribution in the world and the local effects of this problem. Tom Luddy will introduce all of this year’s Talent filmmakers and talk about their productions.Friday, 17.02.2006
18:15: - 37 Uses for a Dead Sheep, Ben HopkinsSaturday, 18.02.2006
14:30: - Happy as One, Vanessa Jopp
And what will I be doing in my mornings and on Wednesday and Thursday? Lolling about and slacking off? Why I’ll be re-viewing the thirty-two (32!) short films on food, hunger and taste at the Berlinale Talent Campus, chit-chatting with the directors, watching the odd non food-related film.
You’ll be needing these links as well:
- 56th Berlinale International Film Festival (programme search in English)
- Berlinale Talent Campus lineup of film on food, hunger and taste
- Berlinale Talent Campus (in English)
- Berlinale Talent Campus evening programme
- Berlinale Talent Campus lecture and presentation programme
- Slow Food and the Berlinale Talent Campus have teamed up. Here’s the blurb.
- Jonathan Nossiter’s Mondovino
- NYTimes film review of Marcel Pagnol’s classic from 1937, Harvest (Regain)
- Marcel Pagnol filmography on the IMdb
- James Benning interview by Danni Zuvela on the Senses of Cinema website
- James Benning’s filmography on Wikipedia
- Synopsis of Alison Chernick’s Matthew Barney: No Restraint
- Ben Hopkins, 37 Uses of a Dead Sheep
- A list of food-related films, compiled by Rebecca Epstein for Gastronomica. Her dissertation titled, “Crime and Nourishment”, focused on the food and foodways of Hollywood gangster films. Epstein’s list needs a good tweaking and I don’t agree with her about a lot of the titles, but it will serve us just fine for February.
- culiblog reviews Matthew Barney’s Drawing Restraint 9
technorati tags: Berlinale International Film Festival, film, food-related film, cinema, Berlin, Drawing Restraint, Matthew Barney
debra at 14:12 | | post to del.icio.us
Wow that’s quite a lineup. I wish I could go to the Berlin film festival. (Looks like they have great films that aren’t about food, too. How do you manage it?)
Comment by mzn — February 9, 2006 @ 14:50
I just recently found your blog, I believe from a link on 101 Cookbooks. I just wanted to say I definitely appreciate your writings, and am truly enjoying each post.
Comment by Christiane — February 9, 2006 @ 15:10
Wingflapping all around Christiane. Thank you.
Comment by Debra — February 9, 2006 @ 15:21
Well Michael, I would like to tell you it was a piece of cake, but that would be lying.
It was a piece of cake.
Comment by Debra — February 9, 2006 @ 15:23
“Eminence grise” means “a powerful adviser or decision-maker who operates secretly or unofficially” - the unseen power behind the throne. People frequently use it incorrectly as you did. The “grise” is not for “elderly” but “shadowy”.
Comment by Grammar Nazi — February 10, 2006 @ 23:58
I stand corrected - and indeed I, and everyone I know use this term incorrectly. Which word with good ‘mouth feel’ would you suggest to describe these folk. Established, arrogant men in their late 50’s, with a massive sense of entitlement, narrowed view, assimiliation of new ideas has all but stopped for some years. Does not mean to imply that they don’t deserve their position and respect, just that their brain has stopped development and is no longer aware of what is contemporary. Ludditic, guru-like, dismissive.
Now that’s too many words to describe… BLANK.
Fortunately you’re not one of them.
Comment by Debra — February 13, 2006 @ 12:57