Fails to inspire

Specialty moviegoers who frequent "slow" markets (or who even know what a "slow" market is) will be thoroughly engaged by the sustainable food documentary Food Beware. The majority of arthouse audiences, even those who frequently buy organic food, will take issue with the film's overwhelming number of talking heads, constant barrage of stats and director Jean-Paul Jaud's inability to craft a human story out of a very timely health issue. Thanks to its subject matter, Food Beware (titled That Should Not Be: Our Children Will Accuse Us in its native France) will attract modest business when First Run Features opens the film Friday. Jaud's inability to make an approachable story out of the Agro-Culture issue will cost the film any chance at sizable crossover business.

At the massive auditorium inside UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, various scientists including John Peterson Myers, discuss alarming increases in cancer, diabetes and infertility all due to the environment and farming methods that use 140 million tons of pesticides each year. A series of graphics list the high number of pesticides used in the breads, sausages and fruit schoolchildren eat on a regular basis and reveals that 90% of cultivated soil in France is treated with chemicals.

Fighting to make a difference are Mayor Edouard Chaulet, political leaders and concerned citizens of Barjac, France, a rural town at the base of the Cévannes Mountains in the heart of French agriculture country, or more accurately, pesticide country. Town leaders plan for organic cafeterias in schools, hospitals and nurseries in order to provide healthy locally grown foods to the children of Barjac. Filmed primarily in 2007, Jaud shows how Barjac becomes a changed, healthier town and an environmental inspiration for advocates of the French Agro-Culture movement.

The best moment in Food Beware comes late in the film when a mother emotionally describes her young daughter's cancer treatment and her realization that her contact with pesticides while pregnant most likely played a role in her child's illness. It's one of the rare moments when a human face is placed on the topic of replacing traditional use of pesticides with organic farming. Jaud, who produced Food Beware via his company J+B Sequences, fails to move beyond the socio-political landscape and focus on the individuals of Barjac and their unique stories. Food Beware would have benefited from a more personal touch but Jaud never understands that the people, not the stats, make this issue matter.

When the film takes a break from talking heads, Food Beware is surprisingly cinematic and Jaud and cameramen Amar Arhab and Joel Pierron take full advantage of the beautiful French countryside, including ancient Roman ruins and fields of sunflowers and lilacs. Less successful is editor Isabelle Szummnu who fails to keep the film from lagging at 112 minutes.

Targeted outreach to environmental groups will help First Run Features make the most of its limited platform release for Food Beware, but expect earnings far less than 2009's leading environmental doc, Magnolia's Food, Inc. The majority of audiences will discover the film via home video, which in terms of eco-friendliness and reducing one’s carbon footprint, may not be a bad thing.

Distributor: First Run Features
Director: Jean-Paul Jaud
Producers: Jean-Paul Jaud and Béatrice Jaud
Genre: Documentary
Rating: Unrated
Running time: 112 min.
Release date: October 16 NY