This documentary by Jonathan Nossiter shows that globalisation is not even put off by such an ancient cultural product as wine. By interviewing different winegrowers and distributers as well as critics and other people related to the wine making process - each of them with a different point of view, a different philosophy about how wine should taste be cultivated and distributed - the filmmaker draws a interesting picture of the modern wine business.

Documentary made by two young Americans who are wondering why corn is becoming a very important part of our daily diet (and even our body!). They start to plant and grow corn on an acre in Iowa. But farming is not what they had expected… And in the process they find out where our food comes from.

Darwin’s Nightmare is a Austrian-Belgian-French documentary which evoked controversy all over the world - but especially in France - for it’s subjective documentary style. It focuses on fishing in Victoria Lake (Tanzania) and it’s negative effects on the local population. It also demonstrates a link between the export of fish to Europe and the import of weapons to Africa. The film won prizes in various film festivals and was nominated for an Oscar.

In the 1960s 35 Nile perches were introduced to the Victoria Lake where they wiped out most of the population of domestic fishes (more than 400 species) and affected the ecosystem of the lake. In the past decades, the Nile perch became a real export hit and all along the coast of the lake factories for fish processing emerged, supported by the European Union (EU). Today the EU is the main market for the Nile perches … or rather was, until the release of Darwin’s Nightmare! 

Were you always interested in the subject food?

No, I wasn’t. In my opinion, this topic was neglected a long time. When I developed the project, I didn’t know that Erwin Wagenhofer had the same idea and made the documentary We feed the world. Both films were financed by the EU at the same time.

Even if your film Our Daily Bread was financed by the EU, you pointed out the European agricultural politic in a critical way…

For me, it’s a big illusion. The whole European agriculture wouldn’t run without the cheap workers who are often illegals. For the film it wasn’t important where to shoot because all over Europe the process is the same. The film allowed us to look behind the scenes into a very closed zone: the foodstuff sector.

World food crisis. New poor. Price augmentation. Food waste. Whether they directly or indirectly affect us, these expressions have (sadly) become familiar to us. Lately, in the “Summer best-seller” column of a widely printed daily French newspaper, an article1 was talking about Jinnosuke Uotsuka, author of two successful books : Japanese who let their food rot in the fridge and Japanese who don’t let their food rot in the fridge.