movies

Below is the complete selection of films screening at the Food Film Festival 2013: documentaries, feature films, classics and an exceptionally rich programme of fantastic shorts from around the world. Look out for exciting premieres and Q&As with filmmakers. Enjoy!

Please note: the Food Film Festival is aimed at an international audience and many of the films are English spoken or have English subtitles. The language is indicated at the top of each synopsis.

Tickets

You will be able to buy tickets on this site from 27 February. If the film you want to see is sold out online, don't worry! On Friday 22 March from 11am, tickets will also be on sale at the Studio/K box office.

Members of the Youth Food Movement / Slow Food are eligible for an attractive discount. Find out more about ticket sales.

Above the Heart <b> NL première + Q&A + SHORT</b>

Above the Heart NL premiere + Q&A + SHORT

Documentary | Gaëlle Komàr | 79 min

At the break of dawn, when the city is still asleep, the lights in the local slaughterhouse are turned on. Animals are brought in, men in white suits arrive and machines begin to whir. It is a new day in which a confrontational series of images and sound form a hypnotic whole.

Battling Obesity <b> NL première + SHORT</b>

Battling Obesity NL premiere + SHORT

Documentary | Romain Bolzinger | 52 min

In the United States, one in five children is obese and 400,000 people die each year as a result of being overweight. In Battling Obesity, we meet sufferers, health gurus and politicians who have declared war on the disease; as well as those who believe that big is beautiful and retailers who use obesity as a marketing strategy to sell more burgers.

Best Before <b> SHORT - NL première + Q&A </b>

Best Before SHORT - NL premiere + Q&A

Documentary | Ben Mann | 32 min

We live in an age of declining food security. The price of commodities is skyrocketing and producers get less and less in return. This price rise is largely driven by high oil prices, and farmers are increasingly dependent on machines and transport companies to produce and distribute their food.

Farmer Jack SHORT

Arjan Wilschut | 14 min

Farmer Jack started small, like all farmers. One day a businessman and a scientist appear at his door with a lucrative proposal.

Bottled Life NL premiere

Documentary | Urs Schnell | 90 min

Nestlé is the world's largest food company and chairman Peter Brabeck is quite clear: access to water is crucial for the corporation. The multinational thus claims to strive for sustainable access to water for people, the environment and the company. But how sustainable is it to put water in bottles?

Canned Dreams NL premiere

Documentary | Katja Gauriloff | 78 min

Think canned foods are anonymous? You won’t after you’ve seen Canned Dreams. Katja Gauriloff’s probing documentary uses the many ingredients in a simple canned meal as a starting point for a road movie through nine different countries and stories. The film gives a face to the thousands of factory workers, farmers and miners who play a role in the final product on our supermarket shelves.

Chungking Express CLASSIC

Speelfilm | Wong Kar-Wai | 98 min

In 1990s Hong Kong, two heartbroken policemen wander through the concrete jungle of the densely populated Tsim Sha Tsui district. The food at the Midnight Express stall connects the two separate stories in this stylised masterpiece by director Wong Kar-wai.

Cook Book SHORT - NL premiere

Speelfilm | Martin Briggs-Watson & Andrew William Robb | 7 min

The way to a man's heart may be through his stomach, but women too expect a delicious homemade meal. Brown beans in tomato sauce just doesn't cut it! An almost slapstick film about the influence of a cook book.

A Stranger's Skin NL premiere

Documentary | Christophe Hermans | 52 min

Twenty-year-old Arnaud is so overweight that, with the exception of walking the dog, he barely leaves the house. He started putting on weight when his mother died. He now lives with his father, with whom he has an antagonistic relationship, in the Belgian town of Spa. One day he decides to drastically change his lifestyle, beginning with gastric bypass surgery.

Dans le cochon tout est bon <b> SHORT - NL première </b>

Dans le cochon tout est bon SHORT - NL premiere

Iris Alexandre | 4 min

Everything about a pig is fantastic except its squeal. A wonderful animation about nose-to-tail eating.

Dansen met Gehoornde Dames <b>Wereldpremière + Q&A + SHORT</b>

Dancing with Horned Ladies World premiere + Q&A + SHORT

Documentary | Onno Gerritse | 54 min

Unlike almost all Dutch dairy cows, those belonging to Jan Dirk and Irene van de Voort have not been vaccinated. Neither are they given antibiotics and their milk is not pasteurised. The Van de Voorts have chosen to reject all the rules of modern agriculture in favour of a radically different approach.

Eating Animals SHORTS + Q&A

58 min

Everything we eat was once alive and so eating means killing. Plants cause us few problems, but animals raise all sorts of dilemmas. Many people love animals, but they also love meat... How do we deal with that dichotomy? Two excellent short films explore the subject.

Encarnación <b> SHORT - Wereldpremière + Q&A </b>

Encarnación SHORT - World premiere + Q&A

Documentary | Tanja Nabben | 33 min

Beer, friends and self-slaughtered ham: life in Spain doesn't get much better. We see how Dutch farmer Berend revels in his life in southern Spain.

Food is Experience SHORTS + Q&A

89 min

Eating involves all the senses. This series of short films gives you a glimpse inside the heads of the main characters, and invites you to experience smells, memories and desires with them. This block is particularly special because it includes three Dutch and one world premiere.

Facing Animals SHORT + Q&A

Documentary | Jan van IJken | 29 min

Not all animals are equal. While thousands of animals are turned into food in the industrialised and mechanised machinery of the farming industry, a man blow dries the feathers of his prize-winning cockerel.

Farming on Crisis? <b>+ live screening </b>

Farming on Crisis? + live screening

Documentary | Haris Donias | 20 + 70 min

What kind of future will we have if only 7 per cent of European farmers are under 35? Who will produce our food? In 2011, the Youth Food Movement travelled across the Netherlands looking for answers. In 2012, we extended our search to Greece, shortly after the economic crisis struck.

Happy Meat SHORT

Speelfilm | Marc ter Horst | 1 min

A short film about the depiction of animals by the meat and toy industries.

Hotchpotch NL premiere

Speelfilm | Ebrahim Forouzesh | 90 min

Fazil's wife dies during childbirth. Devastated, he finds himself having to look for food for his new-born son. The boy refuses powdered milk and so Fazil goes in search of lactating surrogate mothers. In rural Iran, it is an uncomfortable request that he is nevertheless obliged to make.

I Kill <b> SHORT - NL Première + Q&A </b>

I Kill SHORT - NL Premiere

Documentary | David White | 10 min

Steve 'Beatle' Tarrant kills livestock in New Zealand, and he does so on location. This is much less stressful for the animals, a fact Beatle takes great pride in. Not for those with a weak stomach, but nevertheless a fascinating look at an unusual profession.

L'Amour des Moules + SHORT

Documentary | Willemiek Kluijfhout | 80 min

Fresh mussels are pure nectar for aficionados. The start of Zeeland’s mussel season is eagerly anticipated and the shellfish is celebrated far beyond the Dutch borders. L’Amour des Moules follows this local product from seed to plate and along the way introduces us to the people whose lives are intertwined with it.

Land Rush + SHORT

Documentary | Hugo Berkeley & Osvalde Lewat | 58 min

Land grabbing is referred to as ‘colonisation of the market’: foreign investors buy large swathes of land in developing countries to grow food for the global market. Small farmers who have often worked the land for generations are unceremoniously removed from their property. But states welcome the investors because they bring in money and encourage development.

Learning to Fish <b> SHORT - NL Première </b>

Learning to Fish SHORT - NL Premiere

Teemu Auersalo | 4 min

Do we know what is in our food or where our food comes from? Johnny the urban seagull doesn't have a clue but when winter comes and his local snack bar closes, hunger drives him to try catching a fish.

Make Hummus Not War <b> NL première </b>

Make Hummus Not War NL premiere

Documentary | Trevor Graham | 82 min

The ‘hummus war’ between Israel, Lebanon and Palestine, which erupted in 2008, whet the appetite of filmmaker and hummus fanatic Trevor Graham. He discovered a culinary conflict that is raging as fiercely as any other Arab-Israeli conflict. Make Hummus Not War is a humorous homage to the dish, but also a personal story about a soldier who served in Palestine during WWII.

Meatwork SHORT - EU Premiere

Documentary | Madeleine Parry | 29 min

Madeleine Parry’s previous Murder Mouth was one of the best short films at last year's Food Film Festival. In it she investigated what it was like to kill her own food, starting with broccoli and gradually working her way up to a lamb. In Meatwork, she picks up where she left off.

Milk? NL premiere

Documentary | Sebastian Howard | 56 min

Is milk good or bad for you? We all know that milk isn't good for everyone, but some people claim that it is bad for us to drink any cow’s milk at all.

More than Honey

Documentary | Markus Imhoof | 91 min

The story of the birds and bees is perhaps the best way to explain to a child how nature reproduces. If the current bee mortality continues, there is a chance we won’t be able to tell that story for much longer. In More than Honey, the filmmaker investigates the alarming disappearance of the honeybee.

Not-so-super-market SHORTS +Q&A

72 min

These shorts all have one thing in common: the arrival of the supermarket. Small shops are fighting an uphill battle against supermarket chains and consumers are losing sight of where their products come from. Three short films about consumption in an age of mass production.

No Hay Pan SHORT

Speelfilm | Macarena Monros | 20 min

In No Hay Pan, we meet Luis, the Chilean owner of a small local shop.

Now, Forager + SHORT

Speelfilm | Jason Cortlund & Julia Halperin | 93 min

Husband and wife Lucien and Regina pick wild mushrooms and sell them to New York restaurants. They live simply, according to the seasons. When Regina seeks more stability and accepts a steady job, the marriage begins to unravel. A feature film about living with nature in modern society.

Oma & Bella NL Premiere

Documentary | Alexa Karolinski | 75 min

Oma and Bella are two typical Jewish grandmothers, and the best of friends. They live together in Berlin and spend their time chatting about the turbulent present and their far-from-easy past as they cook. Filmmaker and granddaughter Alexa captures how closely food and memories are intertwined.

Orange Ô Desespoir SHORT

John Banana | 4 min

Oranges are some of the toughest fruits. They sit sullenly in their thick skins, staring straight ahead.

Polaris SHORT

Documentary | Chico Pereira | 15 min

Work, eat, sleep, work. The sea is a lonely place. Polaris depicts the lives of migrant fishermen in Scotland.

Rawer

Documentary | Anneloek Sollart | 57 min

Fifteen-year-old Tom has eaten nothing but raw fruit, vegetables and nuts for ten years. According to his mother Francis, the only diet that is not harmful to our health is a raw vegetarian diet. Even though Tom no longer goes to school as a result of his strict diet, is malnourished according to doctors and socially isolated, his mother’s mission seems unstoppable.

Slow Food Story <b>NL Première + Q&A </b>

Slow Food Story NL Premiere + Q&A

Documentary | Stefano Sardo | 74 min

In 1986, McDonalds opened its first store in Rome, in the heart of Italian eating culture. The American symbol of fast food in the middle of Rome... this was to much for a group of friends from the north of Italy. They started a resistance movement: Slow Food was born.

Super SHORT

Johan Klungel | 10 min

The nightmare of grocery shopping.

Tastes Like Chicken? <b> SHORT - NL Première </b>

Tastes Like Chicken? SHORT - NL Premiere

Speelfilm | Quico Meirelles | 15 min

Tastes Like Chicken? takes us inside the head of a chick born on a battery farm. Like all the other chicks, she doesn't know what the outside world looks like, but it has to be better than this?!

The Fish Fall in Love

Speelfilm | Ali Raffi | 90 min

After a 20-year absence, Aziz returns to his hometown on the Caspian Sea with the intention of selling his family’s possessions. To his surprise, he finds four women have turned his family home into a thriving restaurant. Against the backdrop of their fantastic dishes, Aziz is confronted with his complex past.

The Fruit Hunters + SHORT

Documentary | Yung Chang | 90 min

The rise of monoculture in the fruit industry brought prosperity and groaning supermarket shelves. Yet every banana, apple and kiwi tastes the same. The Fruit Hunters follows the adventures who travel to the furthest corners of the earth in search of exotic fruits and flavours – to taste them and preserve them for posterity.

The Well

Documentary | Paolo Barberi & Riccardo Russo | 56 min

During Ethiopia’s long dry season, the Borana’s ‘singing wells’ are the only source of water for the tribe and their livestock. These wells, which occupy a special place in the community, are managed according to a system that guarantees access to fresh water for all.

Zupa SHORT - NL premiere

Documentary | Maira Dobele | 37 min

When the Latvian Maira thinks back to her youth, one thing stands out: a packet of instant soup with a picture of a cockerel on it. It was a gift from her father after a trip to Yugoslavia.