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Wednesday, January 28th
Screenings and Response: Eating Alaska and Audience Engagement
After the screening at the Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival, one of the first questions a woman in the audience asked was, "what can I do?" Our hope is that screenings of Eating Alaska will be continue to be linked to discussions, community actions and connect viewers to things they can do in their homes, with their families, in schools, workplaces and whereever they live, be it as part of a remote village's culture camp or an urban gardening program.
Upcoming Screenings:
Alaska Forum on the Environment
February 3rd at 2:00 p.m.
Talkeetna AK, Community Screening
February 18, 2009 at 6:30 p.m
Juneau, AK Community Screening, March 1, 2009
Juneau Arts & Culture Center
Additional Juneau Screenings:
Juneau High School and University of Alaska SE
See: Sustainable Juneau
Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival , Sebastopol, CA March 6, 2009
Food for Thought Film Festival, New York City April 2009
Alaska Dietetic Association Conference May 15, 2009
Mendocino Film Festival, Northern CA, May 2009
Other News
We're posting this list as a wellness committee in the Southeast Alaskan town of Wrangell starts to organize an event around Eating Alaska and the day after the film screened at the public library in Haines, Alaska. These community creenings are collaboratively organized by community, conservation and health programs including the Southeast Regional Health Consortium and the Southeast Regional Conservation Council and the Sitka Conservation Society.
We recently got news of funding through the Center for Disease Control and Steps to a Healthier S.E. Alaska to produce a curriculum and user's guide to print and put on-line. Our goal is to have version to send out with DVDs and post by late summer of 2009.
Reviews
Here is an sample of what people are saying about Eating Alaska:.
"Eating Alaska asks all the right questions and urges us to find our own answers. The film is a very useful and heartful tool for talking about food justice and food systems and to help all of us to create a new story about food."
- Peter Forbes, Co-Founder Center for Whole Communities
“What is the role of food in our lives? What is ‘good’ food? When is ‘fresh’ not best? Should all diets be local? Does place (or preparation) matter? Who decides? Who pays for our choices? This engaging film provides plenty of ‘food for thought’ about some of the most important questions we can ask ourselves, both as individuals and as communities. This thoughtful film is likely to be a conversation starter in any group, and may even spur a few to action."
-Rhonda M. Johnson, Professor of Public Health, University of Alaska Anchorage
"Eating Alaska makes us ruminate, laugh and stand in awe, all at the same time. Rather than one more dry polemic on the ethics of eating that attempts to convert you, this film shines the light on the difficulties of eating sustainably and healthily in one of the richest foodsheds of North America.Whether you are from the Skin-Yourself-a-Moose state or from the Land of Tofu--or both--you need to take this journey with Ellen to explore the dilemmas of eating-in-place. It isn't as simple as you think....it's far more complex than we can think."
-Gary Nabhan, author of Where Our Food Comes From and Coming Home to Eat
Ellen Frankenstein, on 01.28.09 @ 17:40AKT [link]
Wednesday, January 7th
Screenings, Slow Food and Changing Lifestyles on the Last Frontier
This weekend, on January 10th, Eating Alaska screens both at the Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival in Nevada City, CA. and the Tucson Slow Food & Film Festival. It also shows at the Freeze Project in Anchorage the next weekend, on January 18th.
Sometimes I'm asked what is slow food? Sometimes this question comes from people who grew up fishing, gathering greens and berries and eating moose meat and caribou. They're the ultimate slow fooders, but don't know it.
Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic organization that supports a biodiverse, sustainable food supply, local producers, heritage foodways, and rediscovery of the pleasures of the table. Carlo Petrini founded Slow Food in 1986 in response to the opening of a McDonald's in Rome's historic Piazza di Spagna in Italy. See Slow Food to learn more.
Along this line of thought, a friend, who had come over the week before to get an advanced screening DVD to send to family that lives out of Alaska called. He is probably in late sixties, grew up around Nome and after watching the film he wanted to share his experience with changing lifestyles in Alaska. He explained how things were harder in some ways when he grew up because they'd walked everywhere, didn't use fuel in their boats to do subsistence and had to work together getting food, because they relied on human power so much. He continued, chucking a bit, saying things had gotten easier, people were living longer, but they didn't seem as healthy. He reported that some of his cousins living around Nome were moving away to Anchorage or another bigger city since the price of electricity and heating oil was running then about $2,000 a month--even as oil prices decline outside the state.
Though we didn't talk about it when he called, it is pretty clear that this friend grew up as a slow fooder, using traditional harvesting and preparation methods. He reminds me, with a pause and a chuckle, that we can't go back in time and for various reasons don't want to. Meanwhile, his cousins who may move away from their community to a bigger city, are caught by the pressures of modern living, with processed foods, convenience, and bills to pay.
One more note: just before the holiday break, we showed Eating Alaska to about 350 students plus staff at the local high school in Sitka. Students filled out feedback forms with questions including"What is Eating Alaska about to you? What concerns, if any, as a consumer and community member does this film bring up for you?" and "if you were given an assignment to make a five minute film that responded to or elaborated on any part of Eating Alaska, what would you make the film about?" This was one response, "it makes me wonder what kind of foods I eat, where it comes from and how other people prepare your food." Another student wrote that the film was about "choices." We'll share more in other blogs.
Meanwhile, speaking of choices and provoking thought and action around the ones we take at least three times a day, if we're fortunate enough to eat well or eat often, we're looking forward to a community screening/event in Juneau on March 1st and more screenings in state and beyond.
Ellen Frankenstein, on 01.07.09 @ 09:43AKT [link]
