‘Harvest: Food on Film’ showcases a rich vein of contemporary filmmaking that explores food production, consumption and presentation as vivid storytelling motifs. Feature films and documentaries that take food as their subject variously touch on narratives of connection; identity and tradition; power and status; and our deepening awareness of the larger political and ethical framework that surround our agricultural systems and the impact of our food choices. The presence of food on the cinema screen often expresses forms of spoken and unspoken communication between characters.  It can convey identity with a dish that evokes yearning of home; transgression through food deprivation or straying into forbidden consumption; or power and status in the display of excess. The recent rise of documentary stories has enabled a focus on the personalities behind food creation as well as the ethical and environmental considerations of farming systems and food politics.

*image (left)
Production still from Eat Drink Man Woman, 1994
Director: Ang Lee
Image courtesy: Central Motion Picture Corporation