Our Daily Bread

[Zeemanb]

Did anyone else happen to catch this on Sundance? If not, definitely set your DVR because there is no DVD release date as of yet. The theme of the documentary is European industrial food production and hi-tech farming. The most interesting thing about it, besides the machinery and sheer scope of some of the production, is that there is no narrator, no music...nothing. The only "soundtrack" is the sound of machinery, animals and workers. It is shot in such a way that once I started I couldn't stop watching all of the "stories" unfold. It includes apples, sunflowers, pigs, milk, salt.....and even though I'm a total sucker for shows like "How It's Made" I think the appeal for food-minded individuals is obvious. It leaves you to draw your own conclusions on the beauty and terror of factory farming.

Some parts are easier to watch than others, but even the scene with the pork production (from live piggies all the way to parts) was so fascinating to see on that scale that it was easy to get past the gore aspect. The "zipper" machine that opens up the animals is one of the scariest pieces of equipment I can possibly imagine. Then there are scenes like the one with workers on their knees processing fresh lettuce, and you wonder....how is the lettuce getting into that tiny room, and why are they sitting so low? Then the camera pans back and you see the giant machine, and all of the workers are actually crawling across the ground in a little canopy on the front of the tractor picking the live lettuce...at night.

Anyway, definitely watch this if you get a chance. I would really like to hear some other opinions.

[Chufi]

It leaves you to draw your own conclusions on the beauty and terror of factory farming. 

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I saw this a year ago at a documentary festival here in Amsterdam and really enjoyed it. Well enjoyed is perhaps not the best word!

I think it was beautifully done and especially liked the fact that, like you said, it leaves you to draw your own conclusions. No morality forced on the viewer, just the cool eye of the camera showing you everything from rows and rows of cucumbers to enormous piles of baby chickens.

I just wrote this on another thread, so it seems to be the theme of the day, but I really like to be made more aware of where my food comes from.

[emilyr]

I haven't caught this one yet, but volunteered at the True/False Film Festival this weekend in Columbia, MO and saw two really great documentary shorts about food in group of shorts called Working Title all about work. They were "ShikaShika" (about a family that heads into the Peruvian Andes to get ice to sell as snow cones in the Sunday markets and "Bread Makers" about an Edinburgh bakery that is staffed by adults with learning disabilities. They were both so great. "Bread Makers" made me hungry and "ShikaShika" made me cold!