HumanDocs shows 'Food Chains' on Wednesday
Janel Shoun-Smith |
Special screening features film exploring the grocery industry and fair treatment of workers
Lipscomb University’s HumanDocs Film Series is partnering with Nashville Fair Food to present a free screening of the feature documentary “Food Chains,” on Wednesday, March 4, at 6 p.m. in Shamblin Theatre. The film is executive produced by Eric Schlosser, the investigative journalist who wrote “Fast Food Nation.”
“Food Chains” provides a look at the struggle for fair treatment in the fields that produce the tomatoes and other vegetables used by the nation’s leading fast-food and supermarket chains.
Tracing the evolution of the grocery industry, the documentary looks behind foods that Americans enjoy daily to issues impacting the men and women who labor to put them on the shelves. As the film’s distributor observes, “There is more interest in food these days than ever, yet there is very little interest in the hands that pick it.”
The narrative of the film focuses on an intrepid and lauded group of tomato pickers from Southern Florida – the Coalition of Immokalee Workers or CIW – who are revolutionizing farm labor.
Executive producer Schlosser also served as an executive producer and co-writer of the feature film “Fast Food Nation,” directed by Richard Linklater. Their screenplay was named one of the best of that year by the New York Times film critics. Schlosser was also an executive producer of “There Will Be Blood” and co-producer and the co-narrator of the award-winning documentary “Food Inc.”
“Food Chains” was also executive produced by Eva Longoria, best known for her role on the hit series “Desperate Housewives” and a noted activist on Hispanic issues.
After the HumanDocs screening will be a brief post-screening discussion with “Mel” Fowler-Green, executive director of Nashville’s Metro Human Relations Commission, and Vanderbilt divinity student Allyn Steele, among others.