Good Stewards

Farmers alone cannot make our food system thrive - it’s up to all of us. That is the message of this enlightening and encouraging film. The good stewardship efforts being made by farmers, consumers and policy makers in the rapidly growing county of Ventura, California will inspire any community interested in preserving agricultural resources.

2008-04-22 | en

Planet Food: Scandinavia

Sweden and Denmark are as much renowned for their Viking warriors as they for the Midnight Sun and, long, cold, dark winters. From the dregs of Viking feasts, to the finest restaurants in Copenhagen, these 2 countries have evolved a totally unique cuisine. In this exciting documentary with roving chef Merrilees Parker, she travels to Scandinavia to find out if there's more on the menu than smorgasbord and smelly fish. In Sweden she enjoys the Midsummer festival, tries some aquavit and samples some sausages. Across the border she tries Danish pastry, tours the Carlsberg factory and watches herring being fermented and smoked.

2007-08-28 | en

The Search for General Tso

From New York City to the farmlands of the Midwest, there are 50,000 Chinese restaurants in the U.S., yet one dish in particular has conquered the American culinary landscape with a force befitting its military moniker—“General Tso’s Chicken.” But who was General Tso and how did this dish become so ubiquitous? Ian Cheney’s delightfully insightful documentary charts the history of Chinese Americans through the surprising origins of this sticky, sweet, just-spicy-enough dish that we’ve adopted as our own.

2014-04-20 | en

Planet Food: Lebanon

For centuries, the ports of Lebanon dominated the trade routes between Europe, the Middle East, China and India. In this documentary, our intrepid gastronaut Merrilees Parker finds a world of heavily spiced lamb, cooling salads, deliciously strong wines from and sweet pastries filled with pistachios and honey.

2014-01-13 | en

Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story

We all love food. As a society, we devour countless cooking shows, culinary magazines and foodie blogs. So how could we possibly be throwing nearly 50% of it in the trash? Filmmakers and food lovers Jen and Grant dive into the issue of waste from farm, through retail, all the way to the back of their own fridge. After catching a glimpse of the billions of dollars of good food that is tossed each year in North America, they pledge to quit grocery shopping and survive only on discarded food. What they find is truly shocking.

2014-04-27 | en

Planet Food: Spice Trails

In this remarkable journey, Planet Food travels the world to see how control of the spice trails, over the last five millennia, has made great cities and destroyed ancient civilizations. Our guides travel from the Molucca Islands of Indonesia, the original home of cloves and nutmeg, to the Indian province of Kerala, with its native pepper and cardamom. Additional stops include Venice, Beirut, Cairo and other significant places in the spice trade that created and toppled empires.

2012-02-20 | en

Globe Trekker: Chinatown

In this special edition of Globe Trekker Chinatown, Lavinia Tan, Justine Shapiro and Megan McCormick travel worldwide to explore the magic and mystery of Chinatowns across the globe. Lavinia Tan begins the journey in Malaysia and Singapore where overseas traders led the earliest migrations of Chinese people. The journey continues from there to the United States, where Justine Shapiro visits San Francisco. Megan McCormick explores New York s Lower East Side, home to the largest Chinatown in the Western Hemisphere. After a short trip to London s Soho district, Lavinia Tan ends this journey with a visit to Hong Kong exploring the world famous film industry and the 21st century migration of Chinese back to their homeland.

2007-04-02 | en

Ramen Heads

In Ramen Heads, Osamu Tomita, Japan's reigning king of ramen, takes us deep into his world, revealing every single step of his obsessive approach to creating the perfect soup and noodles, and his relentless search for the highest-quality ingredients.

2017-11-15 | ja

Soul

Soul explores the secrets of gastronomy where two cuisines apparently so opposite in their philosophy, conception and experience, have both earned the highest culinary recognition, three Michelin stars.

2017-07-30 | en

How To Smell A Rose: A Visit with Ricky Leacock at his Farm in Normandy

In the year 2000, Les Blank, along with co-filmmaker Gina Leibrecht, visited Richard Leacock (1921-2011) at his farm in Normandy, France and recorded conversations with him about his life, his work, and his other passion: cooking! With the flair of a seasoned raconteur, Leacock recounts key moments in his seventy years as a filmmaker and the innovations that he, D.A. Pennebaker, Albert Maysles and others invented that revolutionized documentary filmmaking, and explores the mystery of creativity. With the passing of both Blank and Leacock, the documentary is a moving insight into the lives of two seminal figures in the history of film.

2014-08-31 | en

The Botany of Desire

Featuring Michael Pollan and based on his best-selling book, this special takes viewers on an exploration of the human relationship with the plant world — seen from the plants' point of view. Narrated by Frances McDormand, the program shows how four familiar species — the apple, the tulip, marijuana and the potato — evolved to satisfy our yearnings for sweetness, beauty, intoxication.

2009-10-28 | en

Bananas!*

Juan “Accidentes” Dominguez is on his biggest case ever. On behalf of twelve Nicaraguan banana workers he is tackling Dole Food in a ground-breaking legal battle for their use of a banned pesticide that was known by the company to cause sterility. Can he beat the giant, or will the corporation get away with it?

2009-10-09 | en

A Bunch of Melons Eating Shawarma

A short documentary concerning a group of friends who get together, eat shawarma and drink beer. They talk utter nonsense at times, yet they couldn't be happier.

2017-09-07 | nl

Carb-Loaded: A Culture Dying to Eat

One in three Americans is pre-diabetic. A huge percentage of them do not know that they are sick. Adult onset diabetes is no longer an illness for the obese and elderly. Millions of Americans who regularly exercise and eat a diet recommended by the USDA are classified as "skinny-fat". The connection between the standard American diet and numerous metabolic disorders is now an unspoken fact in most medical circles

2014-09-25 | en

Cookery Hints AKA Cooking Tips

Little film showing a few tips on how to present food graciously. The famous husband and wife cooking team, Fanny and John Cradock, are showing some of the ways to serve savouries. The presentation of the food is as important as the food itself.

1957-02-18 | en

We Feed the World

A documentary that exposes the shocking truths behind industrial food production and food wastage, focusing on fishing, livestock and crop farming. A must-see for anyone interested in the true cost of the food on their plate.

2005-09-10 | de

Noodle Kid

2019-10-04 | zh

How Do They Make Oatmeal Cookies?

This short film reveals the story behind oatmeal cookies, from the farmer's field to fresh from the oven. Without words.

1999-01-01 | en

Pão

A family gathering around what used to be an everyday activity.

2014-05-22 | en

A Quiet Inquisition

At a public hospital in Nicaragua, Ob/Gyn Dr. Carla Cerrato must choose between following a law that bans all abortions and endangers her patients or taking a risk and providing the care that she knows can save a woman's life. In 2007, Dr. Cerrato’s daily routine took a detour. The newly elected government of Daniel Ortega, a former Marxist revolutionary who converted to Catholicism to win votes, overturned a 130-year-old law protecting therapeutic abortion. The new law entirely prohibits abortion, even in cases of rape, incest, or when a woman’s life is at stake. As Carla and her colleagues navigate this dangerous dilemma, the impact of this law emerges—illuminating the tangible reality of prohibition against the backdrop of a political, religious, and historically complex national identity. The emotional core of the story—the experiences and situations of the young women and girls who are seeking care—illustrate the ethical implications of one doctor's response.

2014-06-01 | es