What do you think she meant when she said “a huge black monster with giant claws”?
Ian Cheney and Curtis Ellis leave Boston for the small farming community of Greene, Iowa and spend a year cultivating an acre of corn in this engaging documentary directed by Aaron Woolf. Cheney and Ellis’ purpose is to examine how and why corn became such a predominant feature of the American diet and the American economy, largely via the inedible Iowa crops that are processed into corn syrup or used to feed livestock. Here we see how not only urban and suburban consumers have become alienated from the processes that bring food to their tables, but how rarely farmers themselves have anything to do with their mature crops other than parceling them off for sale.
Cheney and Ellis are curious and concerned but not self-righteous, and the film benefits from the even-tempered nature of their probing. There are also a few nice visual flourishes, such as a stop motion toy farm used to illustrate some of the information. Ultimately, this intelligent investigation of the transformation of American agriculture (with all of its economic, social, and nutritional ramifications) may lead viewers not only to be more mindful of what they put in their bodies, but also lead them to wonder why the issue is so rarely a part of the national conversation.
by Victoria Large | Source: Docurama Films DVD
06 Jul 2008 5:26 PM | Submit Comment