5 Food-Related Documentaries To Watch At The Doc NYC Film Festival
Doc NY is an 8-year-old documentary series that aims to advance documentary film making (and fandom) through weekly screenings, lectures and special events throughout the year. One of these blowouts is their annual film festival, which runs November 8-15 at the IFC Center and SVA Theater in downtown New York City.
Two of the bigger films to debut at the fest include Venus and Serena — an all-access look into the quirky lives of two of the world's top professional tennis players and Artifact, a feature that follows the legal battle between band 30 Second To Mars and their record label, Virgin/EMI. There's also a film about octogenarian professional table tennis players, which is pretty much this year's Spellbound.
But this being Food Republic, we're most interested in films relating to the culture of food. Here are five worth checking out:
1. Oma & Bella
When we checked in with filmmaker Alexa Karolinski earlier this winter, she had successfully raised $40,000 via Kickstarter to complete her feature, Oma & Bella. It is the story of two Holocaust survivors living in Berlin, drawn together by their personal tragedies and passion for cooking. Saturday, November 10, 1:45 p.m. Buy Tickets
2. Men At Lunch
This film explores the untold story behind one of the most iconic images of the 20th century: the 1932 photograph of workmen taking their lunch perched on a girder high above New York City on the 69th floor of Rockefeller Center. Saturday, November 10, 7:30 p.m. Buy Tickets Wednesday, November 14, 3:15 p.m. Buy Tickets
3. Spoils: Extraordinary Harvest
Another successful Kickstarter project, Spoils follows three New Yorkers as they reveal their world as the city's premier dumpster divers. Friday, November 9, 2:15 p.m. Buy Tickets
4. Betting The Farm
Nine Maine dairy farmers are in danger of losing their farms when their national milk distributor fires them. Banding together, they launch their own milk company, Moo. From directors Cecily Pingree and Jason Mann: "Betting the Farm is a quintessentially American story about intrepid small business owners struggling to survive in a world dominated by corporate profiteers." Sunday, November 11, 2:00 p.m. Buy Tickets
5. Sweet Dreams
A decade after the genocide in Rwanda, Kiki Katese, a pioneering theatre director, founded Ingoma Nshya, the country's first female drumming troupe. When Kiki met the owners of Brooklyn's Blue Marble Ice Cream, she invited them to help open the country's first local ice cream shop. From directors Rob and Lisa Fructman: "Sweet Dreams follows this remarkable group of Rwandan women as they create their own unique path to a future of peace and possibility." Sunday, November 11, 4:30 p.m. Buy Tickets Tuesday, November 13, 4:45 p.m., Buy Tickets
Here are some of the films' trailers:
Spoils: Extraordinary Harvest
Oma & Bella
Betting The Farm
Sweet Dreams