The 1st São Paulo Food Film Fest, a film festival that will show more than 40 films from 15 different countries, fiction classics, and contemporary documentaries related to food, culture, and agro-alimentary systems, starts today, October 5, in São Paulo City.
The productions will be screened until the 12th, in hybrid form and free of charge, at Espaço Itaú Augusta and Cinemateca Brasileira.
The spectators in person will be able to participate in debate cycles and taste “unforgettable” cinema dishes after some screenings.
The home audience will be able to watch the films through the official platform, and children can participate in stop-motion animation workshops.
The festival marks Food Month, a celebration chosen by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to engage governments and people in the fight against hunger, malnutrition, and poverty.
“Our purpose is to bring, through cinema, urgent issues for discussion while promoting the sensory experience that gastronomy brings”, said one of the project’s creators, Daniela Guariba.
To put urgent issues on the agenda that need to be discussed at the moment, the creators of the festival included titles with controversial themes that call attention to the current moment.
According to data from the 2nd National Survey on Food Insecurity in the Context of the 2022 Covid-19 Pandemic in Brazil, hunger affects 33.1 million people.
The films Agriculture Family Size; The Goddesses of Food; Quentura and The Great Quilombola Supper; Wasted! A Story of Food Waste; and Park Slope Cooperative (Food Coop) will be screened online and followed by tables with guests for debates on topics such as Agriculture and Hunger, Gender in the Kitchen, Ancestral Food, Production and Waste, Conscious Consumption, and Solidarity Economy.
The event takes the opportunity to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the film Babette’s Feast, based on the work of Isak Dinesen, winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1988.
The classic is set in a remote Danish village, dominated by Puritan tradition, where two unmarried sisters nostalgically recall their youth.
Babette’s arrival from Paris, fleeing the terror of the repression of the Paris Commune, will change their lives.
Taken in as a maid, Babette later wins a fortune in a Paris lottery and has the opportunity to repay the kindness and warmth she received by organizing an opulent party with the best dishes and wines of French gastronomy.
Japanese titles, such as Tampopo, a cult comedy by Jûzô Itami, will also be shown.
Tampopo is a widowed restaurant owner determined to master the art of lamen – traditional noodles of Chinese origin.
The Moroccan Adam, by Maryam Touzani, is a sensitive plot in Morocco and shows the aroma-filled atmosphere of wonderful bread and sweets and the drama of women in Moroccan society.
The program also features films about food and beverage production, such as Brewers of the Spot by Aaron Hosé; Brewmance; Love for Beer by Christo Brock; Truffle Hunters by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw; The Birth of Sake by Erik Shirai; Bread: A Daily Miracle by Harald Friedl, among others.
Among the national films are Before the Plate, by Carol Quintanilha; The Earth and the Plate, by João Grinspum Ferraz and Fábio Meirelles, Estômago; and the documentary The Great Quilombola Supper.
With information from Agência Brasil
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