Filmy Feast!

At Gulmohar Hall, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi

July 29th, 30th and 31st 2010

Though FOOD is a basic, integral part of our life by which we seek to keep ourselves alive,
it is something that we hardly give any deep thought to – how is food being produced, by
what technologies and with what implications, who is controlling decisions around food
production and consumption with what reasons, what role can we play etc., are all
questions that we hardly mull over! These are questions that face not just Indians but
citizens of other countries as well.

Are we walking into neatly laid traps where we cannot exercise democratic choices of
knowing and deciding on what we are eating, how food will get produced and what food
will get produced and how it will finally reach us? Is this trap a part of the profiteering
plans of large multi-national corporations and are we willingly walking into the trap? Are
“modern agricultural technologies” even able to sustain the lives of the millions of farmers
feeding us and helping them stay alive? Are there no alternatives to the current ways of
producing and consuming food?

Some of the emerging issues around Food include food safety, a citizen’s Right To Informed
Choice and Right To Know what s/he is consuming which could be violated by the entry of
technologies like Genetic Engineering in our food and farming systems.

THROUGH A 3-DAY FILM FESTIVAL CALLED FILMY FEAST, WE HOPE TO GIVE YOU SOME
FOOD FOR THOUGHT, ON THE POLITICS OF FOOD PRODUCTION, INCLUDING ON
AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGIES AND IMPLICATIONS FOR OUR HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT.
THE ICING ON THIS IS THE PRESENCE OF EXPERTS AND SOME OF THE FILM-MAKERS DURING
THE FILMY FEAST TO INTERACT WITH THE AUDIENCE.

This festival is being organized by India Habitat Centre in collaboration with Youth for Safe
Food during July 29th to 31st 2010, with two films slotted for screening each day evening at
Gulmohar Hall, India Habitat Centre. The entire programme for FILMY FEAST is given
overleaf.

This is to extend a warm invitation to you & your friends to partake in this
FILMY FEAST.
 July 29, 2010: 7:00pm|DOC FILM|

The Future of Food

(Eng/2004/88mins) - Dir. Deborah Koons Garcia.

The documentary makes an in-depth investigation into unlabelled, patented, genetically engineered foods
that have quietly made their way onto grocery stores in the United States for the past decade. It voices the
opinions of farmers in disagreement and throws light on the political forces that are changing what we eat.

Food.Inc
(Eng/2008/93mins) - Dir. Robert Kenner.

Controlled primarily by a handful of multinational corporations, the global food production business has as
its unwritten goals production of large quantities of food at low direct subsidized inputs resulting in
enormous profits. Health and safety of the food itself, of the animals produced, of the workers on the
assembly lines, and of the consumers are often overlooked by the companies and the government.

July 30, 2010 7:00pm|DOC FILM|

Poison On The Platter

(Eng/2008/40mins) - Dir. Ajay Kanchan, featuring Mahesh Bhatt.

An eye-opening film, this powerful documentary captures how our health would be affected by genetically
modified foods. No more a farmer’s issue alone, GM foods have become a matter of the consumers’ right to
food safety and their right to informed choices.

The World According To Monsanto

(Eng/2008/108mins) - Dir. Marie-Monique Robin.

This film traces the American biotech company Monsanto’s manipulative practices of US Governmental
agencies in order to appropriate production of GE foods and crops without proper testing, without consumer
labeling and in spite of serious questions hanging over the safety of the technology.

July 31, 2010 7:00pm|DOC FILM|

Bullshit
(Eng/2008/73mins) - Dirs. Å Holmquist & Suzanne Khardalian.

A film about Indian environmental activist and nuclear physicist Vandana Shiva, who was awarded the Right
Livelihood Award in 1993. It takes a look at issues of globalisation and patenting, on genetic engineering,
bio-piracy and indigenous knowledge.

So Shall You Reap

(Eng/2008/35mins) - Dir. Ajay Bhardwaj.

A documentary on GM crops particularly Bt cotton, in India. The film covers losses suffered by farmers,
allergies, animal deaths, field trial violations, state governments asserting their rights to reject GM seeds,
regulatory failures, and successful alternatives to GM.