Illinois’ Agroecology and Sustainable Agriculture Program’s (ASAP) Annual Food Film Fest returns to Urbana-Champaign on April 15, 2009, with a visual celebration of food, farming and family. The festival begins at 7 p.m. in the Main Lounge of Allen Residence Hall in Urbana. The festival is free and open to the public.
Local food advocacy groups will have booths prepared for audience members who wish to learn more about food issues in Urbana-Champaign.
Details:
7:00 p.m. Watch King Corn
8:30 p.m. Break out session with local food advocacy groups
9:00 p.m. Watch Eat Drink Man Woman
11:15 p.m. Watch The Real Dirt on Farmer John
12:45 p.m. End
7:00 p.m. King Corn
King Corn is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation. In King Corn, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the east coast, move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. What they find raises troubling questions about how we eat-and how we farm.
8:30 p.m. Audience given time to circulate booths run by local food advocacy groups.
Groups include:
ASAP
Market at the Square
Common Ground Food Coop
Goose Creek Slow Food Convivium
Illinois Stewardship Alliance
Prairie River Network
Unit One
U of I Student Vegetable Farm
9:00 p.m. Eat Drink Man Woman
In a film by Academy Award winning director and alumni Ang Li, Senior Master Chef Chu lives in a large house in Taipei with his three unmarried daughters, Jia-Jen, a chemistry teacher converted to Christianity, Jia-Chien, an airline executive, and Jia-Ning, a student who also works in a fast food restaurant. Life in the house revolves around the ritual of an elaborate dinner each Sunday, and the love lives of all the family members.
11:15 p.m. The Real Dirt on Farmer John
The epic tale of a maverick Midwestern farmer. Castigated as a pariah in his community, Farmer John bravely transforms his farm amidst a failing economy, vicious rumors, and arson. He succeeds in creating a bastion of free expression and a revolutionary form of agriculture in rural America.
12:45 End