Film & culinary buffs together for 3rd Flatirons Food Film Festival in Boulder

Unite your passion of all things slow food through the lens of documentary and short films at this year’s Flatirons Food Film Festival happening Monday, Oct. 19 through Sunday, Oct. 25 in Boulder. The film festival is the initiative of film and culinary buff Julia Joun, whose passion for the International Film Series at UC-Boulder and the wide-ranging world of food motivated her to create and run the festival.

In its third year, the festival has added more opportunities for interacting with local culinary chefs, as well as hosting book signings and audience participation with some of the filmmakers themselves.

“Our community gathering on school food reform in the Boulder area, LUNCH LOVE COMMUNITY, will close the festival,” says Joun. “It combines short films from the LUNCH LOVE COMMUNITY documentary series about the Berkeley School Lunch Initiative, prominent speakers Chef Ann Cooper, internationally recognized author, chef, educator, and advocate of healthy food for all children; Chef Eric Skokan of Black Cat Bistro; Bryce Brown of the Growe Foundation, Curry Rosato of the BVSD School Food Project, and audience discussion, all facilitated by the LUNCH LOVE COMMUNITY filmmaker. I am looking forward to hearing what our audience will have to say about this important topic.”

She added “We have several exciting visiting speakers: Sandor Katz, Chef Andy Ricker of the Pok Pok restaurants, and the filmmakers for EAST SIDE SUSHI (Anthony Lucero) and LUNCH LOVE COMMUNITY (Helen De Michiel). For Sandor Katz and Andy Ricker, the vehicle to interact with them will be their book signings and the Q&As at the end of the evenings. There will be a Q&A after the screening of EAST SIDE SUSHI.”

To view the film schedule, as well as events such as book signings or panel discussions, please visit the Flatirons Food Film Festival website.

Here are a few synopses of films that will be shown:

Love Lunch Community: Lunch Love Community, a new Documentary Project by filmmakers Helen De Michiel and Sophie Constantinou looks into the school lunch reform movement through a mosaic of webisodes made specifically to be watched, shared and spread around the online social media space.

Through a prism of passionate community voices and visions, the filmmakers explore the different facets that have made up the groundbreaking Berkeley School Lunch Initiative. The school food reform movement — now gaining momentum across the nation — took root in Berkeley more than 15 years ago when a determined group of parents, teachers, food advocates and policy makers decided they needed to make change. These short films offer glimpses into how one community can lead the way towards larger systemic change in the way our children eat, how they think, and how they learn at school.

There are now (6) webisodes now available online. Six more are now in production, and will be released through the winter of 2011 on http://www.lunchlovecommunity.org/.

East Side Sushi: East Side Sushi introduces us to Juana, a Latina single-mother who strives to become a sushi chef. Years of working in the food industry have made Juana’s hands fast—very fast. She can slice and dice anything you throw at her with great speed and precision. When Juana gives up her fruit-vending cart in order to find a more secure job, she lands a position as a kitchen assistant at a local Japanese restaurant.

Juana eventually attempts to become a sushi chef, but is unable to because she is deemed the “wrong” race and gender. Against all odds, she embarks on a journey of self-discovery, determined to not let anyone stop her from achieving her dream.

This acclaimed film has landed itself as an official selection of the Miami, Arizona International, Maui and Chicago Latino Film Festivals in 2014.

Deliman: Jewish culture reflects the heart of a vital ethnic history. As that culture continues to shift and adapt alongside mainstream America, delicatessen food – as its name suggests – remains a beloved communal delicacy. In Houston, Texas, third-generation deli man Ziggy Gruber has built arguably the finest delicatessen restaurant in the U.S. His story – augmented by the stories of iconic delis such as Katz’s, 2nd Avenue Deli, Nate ‘n Al, Carnegie, and the Stage – embodies a tradition indelibly linked to its savory, nostalgic foods.

DELI MAN is a documentary film produced and directed by Erik Greenberg Anjou; the third work in his trilogy about Jewish culture.

INHABIT explores the many environmental and agricultural issues facing us and examines solutions that are being applied using ‘Permaculture.’ Permaculture is a design lens that uses the principles found in ecosystems to help shift our impact from destructive to regenerative. Focused mostly on the Northeastern and Midwestern regions of the United States, INHABIT provides an intimate look at permaculture peoples and practices ranging from rural, suburban, and urban landscapes. Directed, shot and edited by filmmaker Costa Boutsikaris.

Official selection – Environmental Film Festival at Yale (EFFY) 2015, Official Selection – Princeton Environmental Film Festival 2015.

SANDORKRAUT: A short documentary about Sandor Katz, author and self described “fermentation fetishist”. He has taught hundreds of fermented food workshops both in the United States and beyond. He is the author of three books; his first book, WILD FERMENTATION, has been called a classic, “the bible for people embarking on DIY projects like sourdough or sauerkraut,” and “especially notorious for getting people excited about fermenting food”. In 2009, he was named one of CHOW magazine’s top trendsetters and rabble-rousers. His third book, THE ART OF FERMENTATION, became a NY Times bestseller, and in 2014 he opened a permanent teaching space in Tennessee.

Katz, who is openly gay, grew up in New York City and now lives in Woodbury, TN, near a rural, off-the-grid community where he resided for almost 20 years while developing his fermentation skills.

The film is co-directed, written and produced by Ann Husaini. SANDORKRAUT is an intimate portrait of Sandor Katz, America’s foremost fermentation revivalist. A native New Yorker, Sandor abandoned a life in politics in the early ’90’s after a health crisis. He relocated to an off-the-grid queer community in rural Tennessee, where his love of gardening and an overabundant cabbage harvest led him to make his first batch of sauerkraut. An intense personal obsession with fermented foods was born.

Sandor’s life and surroundings in rural Tennessee, his daily rituals of foodmaking, his humor and philosophy. As Sandor shares his world, he gradually reveals how his connection with the natural processes behind fermentation has transformed his understanding of life and death.

Farang: The first full­-length feature from MUNCHIES, VICE’s food channel, tells the story of Chef Andy Ricker, and how he transformed his 25­year obsession with Northern Thailand into his renowned Pok Pok restaurant empire.

Farang, the Thai word for foreigner, is the story of chef Andy Ricker and how he spun a 25­-year obsession with Northern Thailand into the hit success that is his Pok Pok restaurant empire. The impetus behind Andy’s drive to open a restaurant initially began as a strategy for flexibility to be able to travel, but it became so much more than that.

The focus of Andy’s culinary mission transformed into representing the culture and food of the people in Northern Thailand as close to traditional as possible. He is constantly reinforcing the idea that he is not a chef, but merely a person who is helping to curate this cuisine in America.

In this feature­ length film, Andy introduces us to three of his main inspirations in Thailand that he has based some of his most successful dishes upon. FARANG explores Andy’s story from his childhood to present day, and was filmed between Chiang Mai, Portland, and New York City.

The filming was mostly done in May 2013 while Andy was getting ready to open his sixth restaurant, Sen Yai. Enjoy.