No one doubts that people from São Paulo love to eat. But until next week, residents of the country’s most connoisseur of cities will be able to immerse themselves for a long time in their favorite subject in an unprecedented way: in the cinema.
From Wednesday (5) to October 12, São Paulo will host the first edition of the SP Food Film Festival. With 48 films from 15 countries, hybrid and free programming, partly and partly online, includes 17 fiction films and 31 documentaries, among the old productions we love to review and completely new ones.
All literary works will be shown in face-to-face sessions, divided between the rooms of Espaço Itaú de Cinema, in Rua Augusta, and Cinemateca Brasileira, in Vila Clementino. Just arrive an hour early to collect your ticket, which will entitle you to sample the drink or dish associated with the story at the end of the movie.
There will be boeuf bourguignon after “Julie & Julia” (US, 2009), strawberry with whipped cream after “Vatel – A Banquet for the King” (France, UK and Belgium, 2000) and pasta à putanesca at the end of “Estômago” (Brazil, 2007).
Those who watch Tampopo – Brutes also eat spaghetti (Japan, 1985) will eat ramen at the end of the session, while those who go to “Fried Green Tomatoes” (USA, 1991) will try … fried green tomatoes. For a “Side: Among Others” roasting (USA, 2004), glasses of wine will be served after the movie.
For children watching the cartoon “Ratatouille” (US, 2007), pasta tasting is accompanied by a stop-motion workshop.
However, the purpose of the event is not just to worship good food. October is Food Month, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and managing films aims to draw attention to topics related to culture, environment and food insecurity.
“At a time when there is a lot of talk about hunger, we need to spark these important discussions. Five online documentaries will follow discussions on agriculture and hunger, gender in the kitchen, ancestral food, waste, conscious consumption and the solidarity economy,” notes André Henrique. Graziano, who signs with Daniela Guariba to create the festival.
While fiction entertains and whets the appetite, documentaries are an opportunity to learn about the food traditions of the depths of Brazil and their close relationship to the food that arrives on our plate – and even observe celebrity chefs in very different situations than usual.
The documentary “Claude: Alem da Cousinha” by director Ricardo Pompeo follows a vacation trip by French chef Claude Troagros. By motorcycle, he travels to remote locations in four states in the northeast, along the São Francisco River. He eats and cooks at home while sharing humorous snippets from his track.
The pictures were taken over a period of 15 days by a motorcyclist, who accompanied him for a distance of 2,147 kilometers. They show Claude exchanging his helmet for a kanjasiro hat and his motorcycle for a horse and preparing goat meat in wine.
“It wasn’t a deal to have a lot of production,” the chef told Folha. “A lot of things happened in a real, improvised way.”
Andre Mifano, head chef at Restaurant Donna and presenter of “Sabor em Jogo” (GNT), also left the kitchen to record a documentary flight. “In Search of Essence in the Kitchen,” directed by André Barmak, follows his season in Enseada da Baleia, the Caicara community of Ilha do Cardoso, the south coast of São Paulo.
Over the course of two months, in 2019, Mivano had the opportunity to engage in net fishing, cutting sugarcane to prepare rapadura, and breaking a pig to make meat in the can. “I like to connect with the world of food that is not the world of gastronomy. I’m back more humble, and I like these people more,” says the chef.
The documentary “Agricolchora the Size of the Familia” by Silvio Tendler was made in 2014, and could not have been more recent – eight years ago, the director has already argued that agribusiness is no more important than family farming for ensuring Brazilian food security.
“We still mistakenly believe that agriculture produces food in Brazil. I am not biased, the two movements must coexist, but agriculture is produced on a large scale for export. Whoever puts food on our table is the small farmer.”
Recently, the documentary “Guarani” by Felipe Abreu and Patricia Moll was produced in 2022 and tells the story of the indigenous people of the Guarani race. In the far south of São Paulo, on the outskirts of the largest Brazilian city, they managed to restore land degraded by the monoculture of eucalyptus by growing more than 200 types of vegetables.
From the same duo, “Dois Riachões: Cacau e Liberdade” shows how the people of the settlement in southern Bahia escaped slavery-like labor and launched their own brand of chocolate.
As of 2021, the short has already won nine awards at festivals in Brazil, Italy and Argentina.
The social theme also serves as the background to the documentary “A Grande Ceia Quilombola” (Brazil, 2017), by Ana Stella Cuna and Rodrigo Sina.
After living for nearly two years in Quilombo de Damásio, Maranhão, Ana Stela was horrified when industrial foods began to threaten Quilombo’s traditions.
“They had memories of foods they no longer eat, things that no longer grow, because the whiteness imposed itself on several occasions throughout Quilombo’s history,” he says.
“Once upon a time, Italian priests encouraged the cultivation of eggplant as a means of earning income, but in the end the quilombola didn’t know what to do with so many eggplants. It was a food that meant nothing to them. Food must include affection, affection. Memory.”
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