Film Info78 minutes
Kikim Media Available for Free AND Ticketed events Synopsis: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” With that seven-word maxim, journalist Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma) distills a career’s worth of reporting into a prescription for reversing the damage being done to people’s health by today’s industrially driven Western diet. In Defense of Food debunks the daily media barrage of conflicting claims about nutrition. Traveling the globe and the supermarket aisles to illustrate the principles of his bestselling “eater’s manifesto,” Pollan offers a clear answer to one of the most confounding and urgent questions of our time: What should I eat to be healthy? Discussion Guide Curriculum One-page Curriculum Poster Press Kit Action Items
Filmmaker Q & AWhat inspired the story?
Our purpose in making “In Defense of Food” was to provide viewers with clear answers to a question that for many people is mired in confusion: “What should I eat to be healthy?” Based on the best-selling book “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto” by journalist Michael Pollan, the program debunks the daily media barrage of conflicting claims about nutrition. And it distills his many years of reporting into a prescription for reversing the damage being done to people’s health by today’s industrially driven Western diet. Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film? Our main challenge was adapting the material in Pollan’s book to work in an entirely different medium. We attempted to stay true to the book while also creating an engaging and informative film that television viewers would enjoy. So we introduced some new characters, wove in more personal stories, and explored some of the scientific advances made since the book’s 2008 publication, especially the study of gut bacteria and its relation to your health. |
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To translate Pollan’s literary manifesto into compelling television, we wove his presentation of his ideas together with stories about ordinary people trying to find healthy ways to eat, and profiles of scientists who are deepening our understanding of nutrition. Because Pollan himself is so central to the film, in order to provide energy and variety we presented him in different ways. We filmed a free-flowing on-camera interview in which he looks directly at the lens (and hence the audience) and also one of his lecture appearances in front of a live audience. He also narrates the film from a written script. We chose this mix of styles so that we could provide viewers with the relaxed, humorous, conversational kind of presentation for which Pollan is known while at the same time ensuring that every assertion in the program was carefully researched and vetted.
How do you approach science storytelling?
We try to make the storytelling engaging, simple and clear enough to be understood by non-scientists like ourselves! We look for strong characters, work hard to create appealing visual sequences, and enlist the help of the best cinematographers, sound recordists, editors, writers, composers, sound mixers, and animators we can find, all in the service of telling the story as concisely and compellingly as possible. We continually refine each sequence, writing and re-writing, editing and re-editing, often dozens of times, until we feel we are telling it as clearly, crisply and engagingly as possible. Then, finally, we run our edited sequences by our team of science advisors, to make sure that the version we like the best also meets the standards of scientific accuracy, and incorporate any changes they suggest into our final product.
What impact do you hope this film will have?
We hope our film and related outreach materials will help people take practical steps toward healthier eating for a long time to come.
The public television premiere of the program reached more than 2 million viewers. Almost 400,000 people have streamed all or part of the show online, and the program website has received more than 895,000 visits. Tens of thousands of people have talked about the film on Facebook. PBS is distributing DVDs and Blu-rays.
In addition, we have partnered with a coalition of organizations to sponsor community screenings and discussions of the film. To date there have been dozens of such events across the country. We are also distributing an after-school curriculum based on the program for 6th-8th graders created by Teachers College, Columbia University.
What next?
Kikim Media is currently working on a three-hour series about the cultural, social and technological history of Silicon Valley, tracing the epic evolution of this once-pastoral valley into a dynamo of innovation that has altered nearly every aspect of human life for more than a century.
How do you approach science storytelling?
We try to make the storytelling engaging, simple and clear enough to be understood by non-scientists like ourselves! We look for strong characters, work hard to create appealing visual sequences, and enlist the help of the best cinematographers, sound recordists, editors, writers, composers, sound mixers, and animators we can find, all in the service of telling the story as concisely and compellingly as possible. We continually refine each sequence, writing and re-writing, editing and re-editing, often dozens of times, until we feel we are telling it as clearly, crisply and engagingly as possible. Then, finally, we run our edited sequences by our team of science advisors, to make sure that the version we like the best also meets the standards of scientific accuracy, and incorporate any changes they suggest into our final product.
What impact do you hope this film will have?
We hope our film and related outreach materials will help people take practical steps toward healthier eating for a long time to come.
The public television premiere of the program reached more than 2 million viewers. Almost 400,000 people have streamed all or part of the show online, and the program website has received more than 895,000 visits. Tens of thousands of people have talked about the film on Facebook. PBS is distributing DVDs and Blu-rays.
In addition, we have partnered with a coalition of organizations to sponsor community screenings and discussions of the film. To date there have been dozens of such events across the country. We are also distributing an after-school curriculum based on the program for 6th-8th graders created by Teachers College, Columbia University.
What next?
Kikim Media is currently working on a three-hour series about the cultural, social and technological history of Silicon Valley, tracing the epic evolution of this once-pastoral valley into a dynamo of innovation that has altered nearly every aspect of human life for more than a century.
