By Alexina Cather, MPH
Films, short videos, and television shows can be meaningful and entertaining ways of increasing awareness of and interest in food policy and the complex issues within our food system. Film has the ability to transport viewers from America’s heartland to an urban farm in Los Angeles. Film allows viewers to follow the plight of Haitian sugar plantation workers and migrant child farmworkers while investigating the larger issues that fail to protect farmworkers’ rights.
The New York Food Policy Center at Hunter College has compiled a list of films and television shows that highlight various aspects of our food system. It is our hope that you share this list with your networks so these films’ messages reach even wider audiences.
A Place at the Table examines the issue of hunger and its serious economic, social, and cultural implications through the plight of three individuals struggling to find adequate nutrition.
Website: https://www.takepart.com/place-at-the-table
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 90 percent
Where can it be viewed: Amazon, Hulu
Release date: March 2013
As We Sow documents stories of survival and failure in America’s heartland, examining the struggles of small, independent farmers against the giants of global agribusiness.
Website: https://www.aswesow.com/
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: N/A
Where can it be viewed: YouTube
Release date: 2002
Chef’s Table offers a look inside the minds and kitchens of six international culinary stars in a six-part Neflix docu-series.
Website: https://www.netflix.com/title/80007945
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 98 percent
Where can it be viewed: Netflix
Release date: April 2015
Cooked is a look at the evolution of what food means to us through the history of food preparation and its ability to connect people. Michael Pollan explores the evolution of food through the lenses of the four natural elements—fire, earth, air, and water.
Website: https://michaelpollan.com/videos/netflix-documentary-series-cooked/
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: N/A
Where can it be viewed: Netflix
Release date: 2016
Dirt! The Movie discusses the environmental, economic, social, and political impacts of soil through stories from experts around the globe.
Website: https://www.dirtthemovie.org/
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 68 percent
Where can it be viewed: https://gumroad.com/benpro, Amazon, YouTube
Release date: January 2009
Farmaggedon explores Americans’ right to access fresh, healthy foods of their choice as producer, Kristin Canty, documents her quest to find healthy food for her children. The film tells the story of small family farms who were forced to stop providing safe, healthy foods to their communities by misguided government bureaucracies.
Website: https://www.farmaggedonmovie.com
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: N/A
Where can it be viewed: Amazon
Release date: 2011
Based on the controversial novel, Fast Food Nation follows a marketing executive for a national burger chain in a scientific investigation that reveals the dark side of fast food.
Website: https://www.foxsearchlight.com/fastfoodnation/
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 50 percent
Where can it be viewed: Amazon, iTunes, YouTube
Release date: 2006
Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead follows the journey of a morbidly obese man with an autoimmune disease, as he attempts to regain his health and lose weight with a 60-day fruit and vegetable juice cleanse.
Website: https://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 67 percent
Where can it be viewed: Hulu, Amazon, iTunes
Release date: April 2011
Fed Up focuses on the causes of obesity in the United States, presenting evidence that demonstrates that the large quantities of sugar in processed foods are the root cause of obesity.
Website: https://fedupmovie.com/#/page/home
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 80 percent
Where can it be viewed: Amazon, YouTube
Release date: May 2014
Food Chains follows a group of Florida farmworkers who fight to defeat the $4 trillion global supermarket industry through their Fair Food Program, which partners with retailers and growers to improve working conditions among United States farm laborers.
Website: www.foodchainsfilm.com
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 90 percent
Where can it be viewed: YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Netflix
Release date: November 2014
Food Forward is a television show about the farmers, chefs, fishermen, teachers, scientists, and entrepreneurs creating practical solutions to feed the world and preserve the environment.
Website: https://www.pbs.org/food/shows/food-forward/
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: N/A
Where can it be viewed: PBS
Release date: August 2014
Food Fight is an exploration of the development of American agricultural policy and culture in the 20th century, and how the food movement in California is creating a counter-revolution against big agribusinesses.
Website: https://www.foodfightthedoc.com/foodfight.html
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: N/A
Where can it be viewed: Hulu, YouTube, Amazon
Release date: 2008
Food Inc. exposes America’s industrialized food system and the negative effects it has on the environment, health, economy, and workers’ rights.
Website: https://www.takepart.com/foodinc
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 96 percent
Where can it be viewed: Hulu, YouTube, iTunes
Release date: April 2010
Food Matters features interviews from nutritionists, naturopaths, doctors, and journalists who discuss organic food, food safety, raw food, and nutritional therapy to demonstrate how the food we eat can help or hurt our health.
Website: https://foodmatters.tv/food-matters
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 81 percent
Where can it be viewed: Amazon
Release date: May 2008
Director Kees Brouwer plays the role of a speculator, investigating whether or not there is not enough food for the planet, or if price increases are caused by speculators looking for a quick profit.
Website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGBM4WngZT4
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: N/A
Where can it be viewed: YouTube
Release date: 2012
Food Stamped follows a couple as they embark on a journey to eat a healthy, well-balanced diet on a food stamp budget.
Website: www.foodstamped.com/
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 79 percent
Where can it be viewed: YouTube, iTunes, Google Play
Release date: October 2010
Forks over Knives examines the claim that most, if not all, degenerative diseases can be controlled or reversed by eliminating animal-based and processed foods.
Website: www.forksoverknives.com/
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 61 percent
Where can it be viewed: https://www.forksoverknives.com/the-film/, Amazon, iTunes, YouTube
Release date: May 2011
Fresh acknowledges the farmers, thinkers, and business people who are working to reinvent our food system and shares their practical vision for a future of food and a healthy planet.
Website: www.freshthemovie.com/
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 67 percent
Where can it be viewed: Amazon, iTunes
Release date: April 2009
Hungry for Change investigates the deceptive strategies of the diet, weight-loss, and food industry that keep dieters coming back for more.
Website: www.hungryforchange.tv/
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 81 percent
Where can it be viewed: Hulu, YouTube, iTunes
Release date: March 2012
Ingredients exposes the shortcomings of the American industrialized food system against a rising local food movement, whose proponents are working to shrink the distance between farmland and dinner table.
Website: www.ingredientsfilm.com/
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 65 percent
Where can it be viewed: Amazon, iTunes
Release date: June 2009
Just Eat It: A Food Waste Movie
Just Eat It chronicles the yearlong journey of two filmmakers and food lovers, who pledge to quit grocery shopping and survive only on foods that would otherwise be thrown away.
Website: www.foodwastemovie.com
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: N/A
Where can it be viewed: Amazon, iTunes
Release date: 2014
Killer at Large: Why Obesity is America’s Greatest Threat
Killer at Large explores the scientific, historical, political, and cultural reasons behind the obesity epidemic in America.
Website: https://www.killeratlarge.com/
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 67 percent
Where can it be viewed: YouTube, Google Play
Release date: March 2009
King Corn follows two friends who move to America’s heartland and plant one acre of corn. Their efforts to follow their pile of corn into the food system reveal the troubling problems with the subsidized crop that drives the fast-food nation.
Website: www.kingcorn.net/
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 96 percent
Where can it be viewed: Amazon
Release date: October 2007
La Cosecha examines the plight of migrant child farmworkers, following three children as they labor across America picking crops.
Website: www.theharvestfilm.com/
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 70 percent
Where can it be viewed: Hulu, Amazon video
Release date: November 2010
More Than Honey interviews beekeepers, scientists, and other experts to discuss the world’s declining bee population and the implications it may have for modern society.
Website: https://buy.morethanhoneyfilm.com/
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 100 percent
Where can it be viewed: Hulu, YouTube, iTunes
Release date: June 2013
Myth of Choice: Is Junk Food What We Really Crave?
The short film exposes the marketing behind the fast food industry and how it is designed to get children addicted to unhealthy, processed foods for life.
Website: https://foodmyths.org/food-mythbusters/
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: N/A
Where can it be viewed: https://foodmyths.org/food-mythbusters/, YouTube
Release date: September 2013
Nokia HK Honey is a film about a group of Hong Kong beekeepers, artists, and designers who aim to communicate the value of bees to the food chain and the benefits of locally produced honey.
Website: https://vimeo.com/21746934
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: N/A
Where can it be viewed: Vimeo
Release date: 2011
Our Daily Bread uses images and sounds rather than voiceover narration to chronicle the ways in which food is processed from farms to slaughterhouses.
Website: https://www.ourdailybread.at/jart/projects/utb/website.jart?rel=en&content-id=1130864824947
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 94 percent
Where can it be viewed: Amazon video
Release date: 2005
Super Size Me follows director Morgan Spurlock’s social experiment to exist on a diet of food from the McDonald’s menu for an entire month. In doing so, Spurlock examines the role of the corporate giant in the lives of American consumers and its contribution to the obesity epidemic in America.
Website: https://www.facebook.com/SuperSizeMeMovie/
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 93 percent
Where can it be viewed: YouTube, iTunes, Amazon
Release date: May 2004
Sushi: The Global Catch explores the tradition, growth, and future of Sushi, a once-expensive delicacy that has become more common and affordable, leading to potentially devastating effects on ocean ecosystems.
Website: www.sushitheglobalcatch.com/
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 70 percent
Where can it be viewed: iTunes, Amazon
Release date: August 2012
Chefs, farmers, bakers, restaurateurs, and food scientists share stories about everything related to food.
Website: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBxVg6-9tfFPY0a85Gc0DlJZ51YE3_FMm
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: N/A
Where can it be viewed: Netflix, YouTube
Release date: 2011
The Fruit Hunters looks across culture, history, and geography to show the connections between humans and the fruits we eat.
Website: https://www.eyesteelfilm.com/fruithunters
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 100 percent
Where can it be viewed: iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, Google Play
Release date: November 2012
The Future of Food investigates the truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that on grocery store shelves.
Website: www.thefutureoffood.com
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 84 percent
Where can it be viewed: YouTube
Release date: September 2005
The Garden tells the story of the urban farmers at South Central Farm, a 14-acre community garden that was established in the ruins of the L.A. riots in 1992, as they fight the city, which tried to eradicate the farm after selling the space back to the developer who originally owned it.
Website: www.thegardenmovie.com/
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 77 percent
Where can it be viewed: Amazon
Release date: May 2009
The Hidden Costs of Hamburgers
The Hidden Costs of Hamburgers investigates the toll that industrial beef has on the environment.
Website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut3URdEzlKQ&feature=youtu.be
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: N/A
Where can it be viewed: YouTube
Release date: August 2012
The Meatrix is a short, flash animation film, which critiques factory farming and industrial agricultural practices.
Website: www.themeatrix.com
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: N/A
Where can it be viewed: YouTube
Release date: November 2003
The Price of Sugar tells the story of a Catholic priest in the Dominican Republic who advocates to improve the working conditions of Haitian sugar plantation laborers.
Website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id7ugtEyI_8
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 74 percent
Where can it be viewed: YouTube
Release date: September 2007
The Real Dirt on Farmer John documents the life of eccentric, Midwest farmer, John Peterson as he rises out of bankruptcy and saves his livelihood through organic agriculture.
Website: https://www.angelicorganics.com/ao/index.phpoption=com_content&task=view&id=148&Itemid=182
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 88 percent
Where can it be viewed: iTunes, Amazon, Google Play
Release date: January 2006
We Feed the World traces the origins of the food we eat and examines how corporations affect farmers, fishermen, and the food supply.
Website: https://www.we-feed-the-world.at/en/film.htm
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: N/A
Where can it be viewed: Fandor
Release date: September 2005
