Preview: Food For Real Film Festival

It's the second time around for Liverpool's Food For Real Film Festival – foodies and film-lovers rejoice!

Preview by Jamie Faulkner | 20 Nov 2013

If you’ve only dipped your finger into the world of food films then Liverpool’s Food For Real Film Festival is a chance to stuff your face with it.

Perhaps you’re a graduate of Food, Inc. and Super Size Me, or maybe you just want something more cerebral than the food porn that passes for cookery programming these days? In that case, the UK’s only food-focussed film festival has something for all tastes (geddit?).

From 21-24 November (that’s this Thursday to Sunday), there’s an impressive itinerary of events curated by creative food enterprise Squash Nutrition. Feature films and shorts make up a list of over 30 screenings, with highlights including the Sundance World Documentary-winning A River Changes Course and the UK premiere of Growing Cities. The former is a captivating look at the symbiotic relationship between people and land in Cambodia and the threat this relationship is coming under from burgeoning urbanisation and international land grabs. The latter examines the growth of urban farming in America and how people are rethinking food cultivation and finding a viable alternative to the industrial food system.

If documentaries aren’t your cup of artisan coffee, there are fictional offerings in the shape of subversive Czech New Wave satire The Party and the Guests, Indian domestic-drama The Chef, and Alan Bennet’s A Private Functiona light-hearted comedy playing up effects of rationing in post-World War II England.

Befitting a food-focussed festival, it’s not all about cinema. There are plenty of hands-on activities (or should that be mouths-on?) for those interested in cooking and growing produce. This ranges from the informative – how to cook a Beiruty breakfast at newcomer Bakchich – to the environmental – plant a ‘pocket orchard’ with permaculture expert Steve Jones. The organisers are keeping it topically real with workshops on foraging and baking bread, plus a talk entitled ‘Supermarkets – A Local Inconvenience’ with Joanna Blythman, one of the country’s leading food journalists.   

There’s a particular emphasis on food and family this year with the vast majority of films and events being suitable for youngsters. Adventurous parents will have a chance to give their kids an education in cooking and food production practices, while the safer among us can just watch the screening of Fantastic Mr. Fox.

And a word of caution: don’t be alarmed if you see a vintage milk float, aka Pod, doing the rounds with a captive audience on its back. It's the festival's mobile cinema.

All events are free, but the website is keen to stress that booking is essential.

There’s far too much going on to preview here so for the full list of events, check out the programme. You can book tickets at www.foodforreal.co.uk and follow the festival’s progress on twitter @FoodforRealFest


A River Changes Course trailer


Growing Cities trailer

The Food For Real Film Festival runs 21-24 Nov. See website for more details: http://www.foodforreal.co.uk