Films and short videos are a powerful way of increasing awareness of and interest in the food system. With equal parts technology and artistry, filmmakers can bring an audience to a vegetable garden in Uganda, a fast food workers' rights protest in New York City, or an urban farm in Singapore. And animation can help paint a picture of what a sustainable, just, and fair food system might look like. Film is an incredible tool for effecting change through transforming behaviors and ways of thinking.
There are many incredible films educating audiences about changes being made -- or that need to be made -- in the food system.
Anna Lappé and Food Mythbusters, for example, just released a new animated short film on how Big Food marketing targets children and teenagers, filling their diets with unhealthy processed food products -- and what parents, teachers and communities can do to combat it.
In addition to Lappé's timely and compelling call to action, Food Tank has selected 26 films -- both long and short -- to share with you. From the importance of land rights for smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa to the insidious dominance of fast food in an urban community in California, each of these films can inform and inspire eaters all over the world. We ask that you, in turn, share this list with your networks in order that they may reach an even wider audience.
1. A Farmer in Africa: Property Rights
2. A Place at the Table
3. Cooking by Heart
4. Fast Food
5. Food Chains
6. Food Fight
7. Food Speculation
8. Forks Over Knives
9. FRESH, the Movie
10. The Hidden Cost of Hamburgers
11. How to Feed the World?
12. La Cosecha/The Harvest
13. King Corn
14. Myth of Choice
15. Nokia, HK Honey
16. Our Daily Bread
17. Planning for a Sustainable Local Food System
18. Soil: Our Climate Ally Underfoot
19. Soil Matters on the Farm
20. Sustainable Agriculture: Where Do We Go From Here?
21. The Garden
22. The Meatrix
23. The Price of Sugar
24. The Scarecrow
25. Taste the Waste
26. WASTE
Written by Danielle Nierenberg and Katie Work