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Mouthwatering movies: Samuel Levie
In Mouthwatering movies, a well-known person from the food or film world tells us about his or her most memorable, sensual or belly-shaking film scene or food film. This week we talk to Samuel Levie, founder of the Youth Food Movement and the Food Film Festival, and sausage-maker extraordinaire.
"There are countless incredible films about food – otherwise we wouldn't have started the Food Film Festival of course. Food lends itself well to film and is beautiful to look at, but the stories that lie behind the images are often even more beautiful. I’m a particular fan of documentaries about food. My favourite? There are too many extraordinary films for me to pick just one. But if I had to, it would be Goddelijk Varken (Divine Pig). The documentary is about a butcher, Zwetsloot, who forms a special bond with his pigs before he turns them into pork chops and bacon. That raises dilemmas of course.
The film opened the first Food Film Festival in 2011 and I’ll never forget that moment. We were standing in a crowded auditorium, the curtain went up and the Food Film Festival became a reality. We chose it as the opening film for a reason: the relationship between man and meat is a subject that intrigues me. We eat meat but don't want to accept that it was once an animal. In the film you see how different people react when confronted with this reality. Some think it is wonderful, others sad.
One scene that illustrates how distorted our view is, is in Zwetsloot's butcher's shop. People say how sad it is that Dorus the pig will shortly be slaughtered, simply because they know him as the butcher's pet. But they say this while queuing to buy pork chops! Incidentally, we liked the story so much that we went to Kamerik to visit Zwetsloot and his 'divine pig' Dorus.
We feel sorry for animals once we know what they look like. I find that a bizarre phenomenon. The film also takes us to an organisation in Amstelveen that rescues animals from the slaughterhouse. It’s a seemingly noble initiative, but how noble is it really? Carnivores should worry less about sparing an animal that is well treated and more about the fate of the animals that they do eat.
I personally became interested in pig farming on Corsica. We saw how pigs roam freely in the forest and feed on chestnuts before being slaughtered. In Italy, we studied with a number of sausage-makers and learned that many products are made from mass-produced Dutch pork. That's when we came up with the idea to use humanely kept Dutch pigs to make insanely good Dutch salamis. And so Brandt en Levie was born.”
About Divine PigThe Dutch film Divine Pig by director Hans Dortmans premiered in 2010 at the American Full Frame Festival and the same year won a Merit Award at Taiwan’s TIDF documentary festival. Watch the whole film below.
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