Food Fight snags documentary honor 0

For those of you who don't get quite enough of my writing, you can see me holding forth on the big screen! That is, if the documentary Food Fight finds a distributor.

I hope it does; I hear it's good. (I do get quite enough of my writing, and I'm repelled by the idea of watching a celluloid image of myself talk; so I haven't been able to watch the review copy I've been sent.)

Food Fight, directed by Chris Taylor, explores how our food system got so screwed up and what folks are doing to fix it. Interview subjects include Michael Pollan, Alice Waters, and Dan Barber; and it also strays into new territory by highlighting the work of urban-farm pioneer (and MacArthur genius) Will Allen.

I'm happy to report that Food Fight recently took the "audience prize" at the 2008 International Documentary Association Awards. I'm even happier to report that one of my heroes, the great German director Werner Herzog, attended the awards show to receive a lifetime achievement prize.

Herzog is no stranger to the milieu described in Food Fight. Back in the 1970s, he was part of a loose group of young filmmakers who occasionally hung out at Chez Panisse, Alice Waters' iconic Berkeley restaurant. That moment is immortalized in a short film by another great director: Les Blanks' Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe. In that movie, Herzog really does eat his shoe -- after it's been cooked up (in a broth with plenty of garlic and herbs) in the Chez Panisse kitchen by Waters herself.

Might Herzog have seen Food Fight? Wow.

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