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2005 Audience Award Winning Documentary The Future of Food returns; Filmmaker Deborah Koons Garcia (Widow of the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia) Comes To Ashland For Opening Night
Deborah Koons Garcia – Director, Writer, Producer
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2005 Audience Award Winning Documentary The Future of Food returns; Filmmaker Deborah Koons Garcia (Widow of the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia) Comes To Ashland For Opening Night
The Ashland Independent Film Festival, Coming Attractions Theatres and the Ashland Food Coop present The Future of Food, as a special benefit for the AIFF. The film won the 2005 Festival’s "Audience Award for Best Documentary." The director, writer and producer of The Future of Food is Deborah Koons Garcia, widow of the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia. Garcia will be the Film Festival’s guest in Ashland for the screenings and she will join local farmers for a post film discussion with after the 6:00pm and 8:30pm screenings Friday evening, August 19.
The Future of Food examines the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods filling the shelves of U.S. grocery stores and the crops affects on small farmers. The film was given credit for the passage of Measure H, the first law banning genetically engineered crops and livestock, in Mendocino County.
Proceeds from the two screenings will directly benefit the non-profit AIFF and assist in the production of the 2006 festival (April 6-10). Tickets for the benefit screenings are available now at the Varsity box office. Tickets are $5 for current aiff members and $7.25 for the general public with no other discounts for the two benefit screenings. More information is at ashlandfilm.org.
From the prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada to the fields of Oaxaca, Mexico, this film gives a voice to farmers whose lives and livelihoods have been negatively impacted by new technology. The health implications, government policies and push towards globalization connected with the introduction of genetically altered crops into the U.S. food supply are given a close examination in The Future of Food.
Shot on location in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, it examines the complex web of market and political forces that are changing what we eat as multinational corporations gain more control the world's food system. The film also explores alternatives to large-scale industrial agriculture, placing organic and sustainable agriculture as real solutions to the farm crisis today.
The Future of Food was shown over a dozen times as a work in progress in Mendocino County before the March 2004 election and was seen as the primary element in passing the measure which bans the planting of genetically engineered crops in the county. It is the first time U.S. citizens have voted on this issue.
Deborah Koons Garcia’s educational series All About Babies won a Cine Golden Eagle and a Gold Medal from the John Muir Medical Film Festival, among other awards. Her feature film, Poco Loco, "finds its groove in gentle romantic fantasy" according to Variety, and won awards at the Philadelphia, Rivertown and Orlando Film Festivals. She was the instigator and chief Creative Consultant for Grateful Dawg, a documentary about the musical friendship between her husband Jerry Garcia and David Grisman. "All the people who worked on The Future of Food are proud that our efforts have had a real impact in the real world," said Garcia.
"If you eat food, you need to see The Future of Food..." www.Newstarget.com
"This stylish film is not just for food faddists and nutritionists. It is a look at something we might not want to see: Monsanto, Roundup and Roundup-resistant seeds, collectively wreaking havoc on American farmers and our agricultural neighbors around the world. In the end, this documentary is a eloquent call to action. "The Telluride Daily Planet"
The Future of Food provides an excellent overview of the key questions raised by consumers as they become aware of GM foods... [The film] draws questions to critical attention about food production that need more public debate." Thomas J. Hoban, Nature Biotechnology Magazine, March 2005, Volume 23 No. 3
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