For three weeks in the spring, when I’m not at work or sleeping, I’m either standing in line for a movie, sitting watching a movie or on my way to another movie, all courtesy of the juggernaut that is the Seattle International Film Festival.
This year, there is an embarrassment of riches in the food documentary department, a trend that has been ‘brewing’ for years. As international cuisine, craft everything and concerns about what we eat and how it is made are moving into the mainstream consciousness, filmmakers are taking up their cameras and exploring the topic of food from every angle.
I couldn’t resist a pair of films whose description began with ” a mouthwatering quartet of hour-long culinary chamber pieces …..cooking extraordinarily breathtaking Japanese dishes based on the ingredients of the season”. That is from the SIFF website, describing the films “Little Forest – Summer/Autumn” and “Little Forest – Winter/Spring”, two films that follow a woman’s culinary journey through the seasons when she returns to her childhood home in the Japanese countryside.
Those are just two of twelve documentaries being shown over the course of the festival. Want to know about the food truck scene in LA? Go see “City of Gold”. Interested in the traditional method of brewing sake? Check out “The Birth of Sake”. French cuisine, global dishes, steak, seafood, sugar, sherry – they’re all covered. And what about the chefs who create all this amazing food? Get to know Curtis Duffy, Georges Perrier, Sam Rama or Sergio Herman in films that uncover what makes them tick.
Go to siff.net, click on the Festival tab, go to Films A-Z and sort by genre for ‘food’.
Peruse the offerings, grab a ticket or two – maybe I’ll see you in line!
Sussing Out Seattle 