robert kenner Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Lately, we have seen documentaries with a huge range of subjects, from war to religion, from art to video games. Those subjects are interesting and newsworthy and perhaps even moving or entertaining, but there are only two subjects that directly affect the people of the world on a daily, hourly basis. The first is the climate crisis, for which folks need to learn how to adjust their lifestyle in order to prevent further damage and encourage healing. But even more urgent is the issue of food. Every living man, woman and child eats, or thinks about eating, every single day, several times a day. Yet, as the new Food, Inc. points out, most of us know very little about our food. A very deliberate veil has sprung up between us and what we eat. Fortunately, little by little, we're learning.

Full disclosure: I was a junk food junkie. Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me made me stop and think when I eventually saw it -- after an intervention -- and gradually I've reduced my intake. But, of course, it's not just fast food that can cause health problems, it's everything we put into our bodies. So when Cinematical debuted the poster for the new doc Food, Inc. earlier this month, I got intrigued.

Directed by Robert Kenner, Food Inc. "uses reports by Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser and The Omnivore's Dilemma author Michael Pollan as a springboard to exploring where the food we purchase at the grocery store really comes from, and what it means for the health of future generations." Well-intentioned as it sounds, in the wrong hands the film could easily have been churned into a piece of shrill, self-righteous propaganda preaching entirely to the choir.

Not so, says Russ Fischer at CHUD. Instead, it's "an informative, well-crafted film that wants it's audience to understand where food is coming from ... It's a film that is deeply suspicious of practices that bring food to our table every day. And rightly so." He found the first three and a half minutes of the film on YouTube, which we've embedded below. The credits are cleverly displayed as gentle music plays in the background and narrative voices raise questions that will be addressed. Take a look and see if this clip doesn't whet your appetite. More information is available at the official site. The film opens in theaters on June 12.

Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for Food, Inc. (click image below to enlarge), filmmaker Robert Kenner's unflattering look inside our nation's food industry. With more and more food being ripped from the shelves due to the apparent threat of disease (with pistachio nuts being the latest banned food), Food, Inc. takes the viewer inside the mechanized underbelly that's been hidden from the American consumer, while featuring interviews with Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) and Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma), as well as Polyface Farms' Joe Salatin and Stonyfield Farms' Gary Hirschberg.

As the film's synopsis states: "Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of e coli--the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults" For more information on Food, Inc., which hits theaters on June 12, check out the film's official website and click the image below to view the full poster.