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Thanks so much to everyone who came out for the Hungry Filmmakers’ screening of Fly on the Wall. For their support of the film, I would especially like to thank Aaron Lubarsky, Suzanne Hillinger, and the amazing Brooklynites who invited Marna and my camera into their businesses.

After the screening, I chatted with two teachers who work in Brooklyn public schools. One told me that her students call baby carrots “teacher food”; they see their teachers bringing this healthy snack to work with them, but otherwise they are like a foreign object in the neighborhood where they live. The other spoke of a child so malnourished from only eating processed foods that his growth was severely stunted.

The problem of food access and imbalance in our communities, in New York City and beyond, is serious and urgently needs to be addressed.

My hope is that Marna’s project can be used as a tool to draw more attention to the issue and to elicit change…stay tuned.

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Trigger: Hungry Filmmakers

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Back by popular demand, the food documentary film screening and discussion event, Hungry Filmmakers, will return to Anthology Film Archives on Tuesday, February 23, 2010.

The next Hungry Filmmakers will showcase excerpts from five food conscious films:

Fresh- Ana Sofia Joanes
Mad Cow Investigator- Nancy Good
What’s On Your Plate?- Catherine Gund
The End of the Line- Rupert Murray
Fly on the Wall- Jenny Montasir

Doors open at 6:30 PM
Screenings begin at 7:00 PM

A post-screening discussion will be moderated by Kerry Trueman- editor of EatingLiberally.org A reception will follow in the theatre lobby with complimentary snacks, Lagunitas beer and wine from T Edwards. BYOC (bring your own cup) strongly encouraged if you wish to have a drink.

Tickets are $15 at the door and in advance. Visit Brown Paper Tickets to purchase online.

Hungry Filmmakers is a not-for-profit event hosted by Shelley Rogers, Cathy Erway, Jimmy’s No. 43 and Tim Lynch. Proceeds will be donated to the nonprofit organization Just Food, which works to promote access of fresh, seasonal, sustainable grown food for all New York City residents.

Hope to see you there!
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Trigger: Hungry Filmmakers

Garbage Dreams follows three teenage boys born into the trash trade and growing up in the worlds largest garbage village, on the outskirts of Cairo. It is the home to 60,000 Zaballeen (or Zabbaleen), Egypt’s “garbage people.”

When their community is suddenly faced with the globalization of its trade, each of the teenage boys is forced to make choices that will impact his future and the survival of his community.

Filmmaker Mai Iskander made excellent character choices to tell the story of the Zaballeen. Sixteen year-old Osama (”I feel inferior in people’s eyes”) is especially compelling. He is not the type of documentary character who reveals dark secrets, or gets caught in private moments. Osama takes his role in the film very seriously. He seems to believe without question that there should be cameras on him documenting his life. For me, Osama provided both the most entertaining and the most heartbreaking moments of the film.

In her director’s statement, Iskander acknowledges how Osama inspired her to make Garbage Dreams:

“In 2005, I returned to [the garbage city on the outskirts of Cairo] and volunteered to help paint a mural at the Recycling School. I filmed a few of the students- applying vibrant colors and making whimsical pictures on a drab concrete wall- thinking that I could cut together a little film about their mural as a present for them.

And in front of the camera, they blossomed. They were uninhibited and really pleased that an “outsider” took such interest in them…One of the boys, Osama, started bragging that an “international film crew” (in actuality it was just me) was following him to document his incredibly charismatic self. Neighbors and friends started calling him ‘Tommy Cruise.’”

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Trigger: Garbage Dreams official site

Skid Row
Festival circuit
2007, USA

Oh la-la-la, Pras Michel from the Fugees made a documentary about homelessness in Los Angeles. He spent nine days on the street with hidden cameras in his jacket.

What I learned:

• Los Angeles is the homeless capital of the US.

• 80,000 people live on the streets- twice as many as in New York City.

• The area known as “Skid Row” has the largest stable number of homeless; 11,000 live in a five-block radius.

• Over 5,000 are under 18.

• 80-90% are drug addicted.

I have to give Pras credit for literally putting himself out there. But the film was too scattered to leave a lasting impact. I couldn’t help but think that it lacked the urgency of When I Came Home, a documentary focused on homeless Iraq War vets.

After the screening, I asked Orlando Ward of the Midnight Mission shelter if, like after the Vietnam War, veterans are again seeping into LA’s homeless population.

“Absolutely we’re seeing Iraq War veterans. The difference between them and the vets who came back from Vietnam is that they are younger. And from our side we know more about things like stress disorders and other mental illnesses. We’re trying to tackle this issue before more troops come back, so we can be prepared for them this time.”

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Trigger: Skid Row official site

When I met actor Haaz Sleiman, I already knew the answer to my first question.

“Where are you from?”

He smiled. “Orginally Lebanon. Ever heard of it?”

At this point I could only assume that while out promoting The Visitor, gorgeous, gracious Haaz had been asked one thousand times about his ethnicity. And knowing what we know about Americans, I am certain that he had spoken with many geography-challenged people.

“Habibatee,” I swooned like Tarek. “Habibi, ya nour el-ain ya sakin khayali…”

He laughed. “Ahhhh, Amr Diab- you know Arabic!”

“I’m absolutely a beginner. I just know some music well. Who else do I know? Hakim, Khaled, Najwa Karam, Alabina, Fairouz… ”

He teased. “Do you know any that was recorded say, after the mid-90s?”

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Trigger: The Visitor official site and trailer

The Visitor
Festival premiere
2008, USA

The Visitor begins with a chain of events that could only happen in New York City.

Walter Vale is a lonely college professor soured by everything except his nightly glass of wine. By chance he meets Tarek Khalil, a Syrian musician who teaches Walter to play the drums– and to rediscover the simple joys of life.

Tarek plays the djembe in clubs, and has a Senegalese girlfriend who sells handmade jewelry. His mother in Michigan calls everyday to check in on him. All three are undocumented immigrants.

A random stop by the police lands Tarek in a detention facility. Afraid of losing his newfound friendship, Walter visits Tarek each day and brings back news to comfort the mother and girlfriend who must wait on the outside.

With The Visitor, writer and director Thomas McCarthy brings a new perspective to the debate on immigration. For his research he visited detention centers in the New York area over the course of one year. He learned that 90% of detainees do not have access to any legal advice. He met one young man from Nigeria who was held for three years only to be deported.

McCarthy insists that the immigration issue is undoubtedly complex, and that there are no easy answers. But there are also many important questions that rarely get asked: what about the immigrants who work hard and make great contributions within their communities? What of those don’t ask for anything in return except to live their lives like any other citizen? What about the good immigrant?

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Trigger: The Visitor official site and trailer

Tribeca Film Festival premiere
2007, USA

Bomb It was a labor of love for director and street art aficionado Jon Reiss. He traveled through five continents and captured hundreds of hours of footage. The result is a fascinating picture of graffiti from around the world.

The film explores the different motivations driving graffiti artists to “bomb”, or spray their designs, in public spaces. The common quality is that their work reflects the social and political climate of the cities where they live. Graf writers in New York City crave notoriety in an anonymous city. Tokyo street art signifies a step outside of the homogenous culture. At one point graffiti in Cape Town called for an end to apartheid. Now the focus is on aesthetic appeal and self-expression.

Across Los Angeles’ landscape of freeways and billboards, graffiti is the indication that life is not just about consumption. But there are those who are concerned about graffiti as an indicator of gang activity and neighborhood degeneration.

One of the most impressive moments in the film is an interview with Valerie Hill, the Graffiti Abatement Program Manager of T.A.G. (Totally Against Graffiti). T.A.G.’s purpose is to encourage children to reject graffiti and to report others who do it. Their method of persuasion?

“Students can get rewards for helping their schools reach the best record of reporting graffiti. T.A.G. sponsors provide participating schools with free pizza, cookies, fun park tickets and other powerful rewards for helping to clean up graffiti.”

Hill hopes that the program can help children to connect with brands, rather than with gangs and crime. For sponsors like Nestle, T.A.G. offers a brilliant opportunity to secure brand loyalty at an early age.

As childhood obesity rates continue to climb in the United States, discouraging graffiti with prizes of pizza and chocolate seems like a misguided solution. The T.A.G. program is effective in cleaning up the neighborhood. The problem is that the children may be too fat and lethargic to go play in it.

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Trigger: Bomb It & T.A.G.

“In 2002, filmmaker Dan Lohaus set off across the country to document the lives of homeless Vietnam veterans and to listen to their stories. They spoke about returning from combat in Vietnam with overwhelming feelings of guilt and rage, about their nightmares and flashbacks, and about how difficult it was to simply readjust to a ‘normal’ life in America.

[N]early every homeless Vietnam veteran raised concerns about the new generation of soldiers returning from combat in Iraq.

When, in late 2004, Lohaus found Iraq War veteran Herold Noel suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and living in his car in Brooklyn, When I Came Home became a film about history repeating itself.”

This documentary standout debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival almost one year ago. Since then, President Bush has committed more troops to Iraq, and 1.6 million new veterans have returned home.One organization, the IAVA (Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America), is dedicated to ensuring that policies are put in place that will provide for both troops and veterans. A huge part of their mission is connecting the average citizen with servicemen and women. In doing so they hope that “an America living life uninterrupted” will wake up to what’s going on in Iraq.

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Trigger: IAVA promo video
Quote: “It doesn’t matter if you’re pro-war or against the war or still trying to sort it out. Everybody in America has a moral obligation to take care of the people who served.”