Film Time Friday

Since I woke up this morning not feeling so hot, I knew this was going to be a very laxidasical day. In fact, I thought I would even skip blogging, but I think I can swing a quick one in here to note, at least in short, all of the wonderful things I was exposed to today.

I decided to turn on my husband's Halo-edition XBox 360 to see if I could bust into our Netflix account. I surprised myself when I remembered how to maneuver my way through the menus and how to add movies to Instant Queue. I found a bunch of movies I wanted to see and started doing so, instantly! Of course, they were all documentaries, they were all about sustainability in one form or another and, for that reason, I have an excuse to write about all three movies I watched.

Here they are in the order I watched them:

FUEL
I started with this movie, because it was one I had wanted to see for a long time and simply never got around to. This movie addressed our addiction to oil. It was created by and narrated by the guy who drove the Veggie Van back in the nineties. He chronicled his life's work to transform our transportation using biofuels in diesel engines rather than relying on gasoline. I found this movie fascinating from beginning to end and caught myself off guard when I broke down at the first sight of the 9/11 attacks - I can usually steady my resolve through such scenes, but I think seeing the same scenes I have seen so many times from this perspective simply reopened an old wound. The Fuel website has lots of information about the film, about screenings and how you can get involved in trying to kick the oil addiction, so check it out.

The Future of Food
This was a movie I added to the Instant Queue today. I don't remember ever seeing it on the Netflix selection before (this should not be surprising to anyone who has Netflix!). This movie seemed like the prequel to one of my favs, Food, Inc. I truly enjoyed (is this the right word?) this movie. I was struck by it, all over again. Yes, I knew of Monsanto's evil doings before seeing this movie and of genetically modified foods, but the clear explanation of the process of genetically altering food is what gave me such pause. Also, to understand that the laws the farmers now have to fight are PATENT LAWS, not agricultural ones was simply staggering. Perhaps this all should have been clear to me before, but I am a math teacher by profession, with no background in law, so I simply didn't make the distinction until seeing this movie. On this website, you can actually watch the entire movie for free. If you would like you can also purchase the DVD, and check out the next project in the works "Symphony of Soil".

Food Matters
For my last film of the day, I watched "Food Matters." I picked it largely because I agree wholeheartedly with its title and was curious to see what their reasons for saying this were. The movie begins with a series of quotes and stats that focus on nutrition as our best medicine, our key to health, and missing from most medical doctor's schooling. This was the essential theme of the film and it was fascinating. From discussing the benefits of a raw food diet, eating the super foods, orthomolecular medicine - taking our vitamins (and stop being so nutty about the side effects), and the seemingly amazing results from following the Gerson technique for health - the message in this film is short and simple: food is the answer. This movie had A LOT of information to swallow all at once, so I will either be rewatching it or using the website as a reference as it looks pretty extensive. You can also watch this movie on their website, but their is a charge, you can also order the DVD there or search through the tons of information they have!

So, that's what I did with my day. To be fair each one of these films deserves their own dedicated post, but tomorrow is another day and I am sure I'll learn something new that needs to be documented! Until then, I hope these film intros whet your appetite enough to go explore at least one of them on your own (if you haven't already!).