Film Analysis: Food Inc.

Food inc. is a successful, award-winning documentary with a strong message, released in 2009; Eric Scholesser and Michael Pollan bring a documentary packed full of trade secrets and insight into the real food industry, because behind all the images of farmers and pictures of green grass, there is a bloodthirsty corporation looking to make the processes faster, easier and more artificial than ever before. The documentary succeeds in persuading the audience to think about the sources of the food they eat through techniques like confronting imagery and archival footage.

When the documentary was produced, media exposure was limited to private and expensive mediums such as television, movies and radio. These outlets were plagued with marketing agendas designed to sell products under the guise of authentic music and entertainment. Formerly non-existent cultural archetypes such as the

Every night when we sit down to watch our much loved Grey’s Anatomy or Desperate Housewives, we know for a fact they are fictional dramas which allow us to escape the reality and boredom of our lives. We also realise the scripted shows use many tactics to manipulate our thinking. The producer does this to position us towards a specific view of life. But what do we expect from a documentary? We know documentaries to be faithful recounts of events; however, these events may be subject to just as much manipulation as the intriguing plots in our addictive shows.

Food Inc. is a very informative and eye-opening film. The intended audience are those who eat unhealthily in America and all around the world. The film is based in America and it displays what companies put in their food before it goes in our mouths. It uses actual examples to display this, like a boy who died from E-Coli from a burger. The main message that the authors Eric Schlosser and Michael Pollan are trying to portray is that we should think before we put something into our mouths about how that food has been treated prior to this.

A documentary is informative if it tells you new and interesting information about the topic the documentary is on. “Finding Home: Utah's Refugee Story” is informative because it tells the audience interesting information like how you have to go through an interview to become an American citizen ( "Apply for Citizenship" 1 ). “Living Without Water: Contamination Nation” is equally as informative because it too gives interesting information on its topic.

The more difference of watching a documentary versus watching a fiction film is how the viewer choses to interpret the scenes in the film. In a documentary the viewer looks that the images in the film as part of educational material that is meant to analyzed and studied, while in a fiction film because the film is preordained to be entertaining the viewer is more likely to allow the scenes to provoke emotions and relate to some aspect of the viewers life. For example the film Life is beautiful it’s a fiction film about the holocaust, the film expresses some of the same main points as the documentary Night and Fog also about the holocaust. They both provide two important scenes, the first one showing the train filled with people being carried off to concentration

The purpose of a documentary is to promote one's views or beliefs, in order to provoke change in society. This is evident in Michael Moore’s documentary Bowling for Columbine and Louie Psihoyos, The Cove. Both documentaries manipulate the audience into taking the composers side of the argument. Bowling for Columbine uses satirical humour and interviewing techniques to make an extremely persuasive argument highlighting issues such as gun violence levels in America and the Columbine High School massacre itself. Louie Psihoyos’ The Cove uses statistics and archival footage to persuade the audience that dolphins are beginning unnecessarily slaughtered, and there is something underhanded going on in Taiji, Japan.

For my film analysis I selected the film, Food Incorporated. Food Incorporated, is a documentary about the awareness of the food consumed in everyday America. This documentary makes the clear thesis statement that what Americans consider to be food, is not actual food. In other words, the food most Americans consume are processed and artificial.

Food Inc. is a documentary directed by Robert Kenner and featuring the popular author, Eric Schlosser. It is aimed towards the general audience of consumers. Specifically those who do not tend to buy organic products, but buy the processed foods, fast foods, or foods from the top food companies. Kenner’s argument is how the big food companies are dangerous to both people and animals, financially and health-wise. He goes on to argue with, mostly, anecdotes of people affected (negatively) by these companies, as well as interviews with people involved with the companies.

Interview/pg. 129: direct questioning of respondents. The film Food Inc. did a good job of having actual farmers provide their opinion on matters within the farm-to-food industry via different styles of interviews. For the most part, these interviews were very much unstructured. The farmers would be walking around their farms or doing ordinary tasks and just either answer the questions asked of them, or simply talk and describe the work they were doing in front of the camera. It is through these types of interviews that the viewers get to really see what happens on the farms and how the farmers feel about such topics that were covered in the documentary. I noticed that almost all farmers who spoke on camera exuded rapport with the camera crew and the known audience. While they knew that any word they said could be published in the media, they trusted the crew enough to speak openly about their opinions most of the time. Those who held contracts with Tyson or other major industry leaders were a little more close-mouthed when asked poignant questions. The most interesting thing I noticed on the topic of interviews, was that the owners and managers of the animal processing plants almost always refused to be interviewed on camera. They knew better than to let their secrets out and then as a would be consequence, ostracized by the public. The public backlash would be incredible, sales would plummet, and the brand loyalty that many households had would also fall by the way side. Because of these declining interviews, the manufacturing sites refused to be placed under a case study. Instead, we the public must continue to be in the dark as to what actually happens to the animals that are processed for the foods we eat. Perhaps one day, someone’s tongue will slip and we will know the truth about what goes on behind the doors of these major industrial leading companies.

The world is filled with injustices. The unheard are being mistreated and apparently no one wants to fight for their rights. Luckily, there are still good Samaritans who have committed their lives to help those without a voice. We have the example of Black Fish. This documentary was made to raise awareness about what is going on at Sea World and how are they mistreating the poor killing wales. Like this documentary there are several others. Another example is the documentary called “The Overnighters”. This documentary aims to raise awareness of the poor conditions in which some Americans live under. This is a great documentary and it effectively targets is audience and delivers its message across the film.

In this documentary Food, Inc. directed by Robert Kenner, it talks about the meat industry such as Tyson and Monsanto. The film focus on the food industry and how it has change over the years. In this film the targeted audience is mainly Americans who buy the food supply. Robert Kenner says the food industries are hiding what is in our food and where we get it from. The film asks the question, “How much do you really know about the food you eat”? The purpose of the film is that we need to find out where our food comes from and also why the food industries do not want us to know. The information showed in this film such as written text on screen, interviews and hidden cameras in chicken and slaughterhouses makes the film accurate. This engages the audience on believing everything said and shown in the film. Food Inc. reveals that companies only care about the profit, not the animals, consumers, workers, or environment.

(SLIDE 1) According to the Oxford dictionary, documentaries use pictures or interviews with people involved in real events to provide a factual report on a particular subject. However, documentaries are much more than that, they educate the general public and make them aware of what is going on in the world and within our society, some are for entertainment purposes or can just be observational. Good morning / afternoon fellow documentary filmmakers, my name is Charlotte Thompson and the documentary I am presenting to you is ‘Food, Inc’. ‘Food, Inc.’ is about how the production of food has drastically changed since the 1950s, how it is controlled primarily by a handful of multinational corporations and it has changed my perspective on food consumption as it has shown the negative consequences of cheap fast food.

I believe this was a great method of presenting information about how to live a healthier life as well as how animals are treated to satisfy peoples demand of meat. This documentary gives viewers a view of how regular people can change their diet. This documentary also shows that there are people that want to change their diet, but it is not something that can easily be done.; but at the end of this documentary they realize why to them it becomes important to change their diet as they learn way more about what they thought they already knew.

The way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous than in the previous 10 thousand. - Michael Pollan (Food Inc). The film entitled Food Inc is a documentary piece by Robert Kenner on the Food industry in America and the History which Lead the industry to where it is now and everyone who is affected by these changes. As a 22 year old college athlete it has never been at a more crucial time to keep track of my meals throughout the day. After a two hour training session the clock is ticking until my body has to go through this rigorous process all over again. Ensure that I am getting the proper nutrients in my body after completing a training session is crucial to making sure that I can elevate my game and get better