Fast Food Nation

Fast Food Nation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_Food_Nation

I never did pick up this book and read it, after seeing the movie, I'm not so sure I have it in me at this point. As a vegetarian for a good portion of my life, I am fairly familiar with this information and the message that is attempting to be conveyed to the world about what what's really in the meat and the cruel steps involved in getting it from farm to plate. Certainly I have an obligation to read this book, but I'm just not sure I can read one more horrifying commentary on factory farming, torture and mass murder, environmental effects and the number of chemicals in your average fast food burger. It's pretty horrifying stuff, it's difficult for me to absorb.

However, it pleases me greatly that documentary and documentary style cinema have become increasingly popular. Surely there isn't much choice, the Mtv generation isn't going to be able to sit through the 2 and 3 hour long documentaries of 20 years ago, let alone read. The attention spans and busy life styles can only support short, quick bursts of entertaining, sensory overloading, heart wrenching, attention demanding blasts of information. Luckily, folks are getting hip to this game and more and more information is becoming more and more available to more and more audiences. Perhaps audiences that might not have the inclination otherwise to research a particular topic, such as factory farming or casein and how it effects your body or the astronomical impacts of mass produced food has on our environment. My hope would be that these audiences that have broader access to information, might become curious and take a small sample of what they saw in the movie and research it on the internet or (gasp) go to their local library and check out a book on the subject. It's encouraging, the idea of getting the message out to the world.

One area in which this movie is particularly powerful is how humanizing the stories are. I feel it brings forward how far reaching the problem is, to what scale and depth the impacts of this industry. It truly is a macro level issue, and the personal plight of each character in the movie reaches any number of us personally. If the slaughter house scenes don't move the viewer enough to consider this issue more completely, the emotional drama's might. There are a number of conversation and scenes which affected me deeply, in particular a conversation an uncle has with his 17 year old nice who works at a fast good chain in a small Colorado town. It is a message of hope and clarity, it is a message a thousand other 17 year olds living in desolate towns need to hear.

The film could have defiantly devoted more time to the governmental policies propagating this industry's total disregard for life and health It is touched on briefly, by a group of college freshmen hippy kids ready to effect change, some of that dialogue I thought was well presented and not to full of jargon so it might make sense to someone unfamiliar with the various terminologies. Over all though, the whole issue of politics in this scenario was largely ignored.

I also watched "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" http://www.ifc.com/films?aId=18019 yesterday afternoon and found it to be an interesting and well directed documentary about the cinema rating guidelines and decision makers in America. The method in which the films is produced breathes a little life into the censorship discussion and the ultimately, the back-assward priorities in American culture about sex and violence. It's also pretty entertaining and a little flashy here and there to keep us GenXer's interested long enough to possibly absorb the information, but it's not over the top. I'd say that's a good goal for those interested in the documentary scene, keeping it edgy is a good way to keep viewers focused, but keep it authentic. Don't try to bullshit your audience. We aren't the brightest stars in the sky, but going over the top and being overtly flamboyant will distract viewers and obscure the message.

Oh yes, and congratulations to Al Gore and Davis Guggenheim for sticking it to Oscar. Informing the public and getting people on board isn't about winning awards and public accolades, but it doesn't really hurt either.