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Leslie Hatfield's Shortlist

Published on April 14, 2008

The Shortlist article series is your opportunity to learn about the films that inspire intellectual, artistic and activist leaders — leaders like Leslie Hatfield. We asked Leslie to share her favorite films and her thoughts on the power of documentary to change the world. So what films made Leslie Hatfield's Shortlist? Keep reading to find out.

Food activist Leslie Hatfield

Who is Leslie Hatfield?

Baltimore-based Leslie Hatfield is a food activist, writer and new media consultant. In addition to freelancing and working to bring more local food to her Highlandtown neighborhood, she works closely with the team at the Eat Well Guide to promote the sustainable food movement and help people find good food through their online directory of farms, restaurants and other outlets of locally-grown food. Leslie has recently guest-blogged for The Ethicurean, and is looking forward to launching the Green Fork, the official blog for the Eat Well Guide.

Prior to leaving New York last fall, Leslie promoted and blogged for Sustainable Table, most notably during the 2007 Eat Well Guided Tour of America. In 2006, she lent research and tech support to the preparations of the Center for Digital Democracy and Berkeley Media Studies Group's report, "Interactive Food & Beverage Marketing: Targeting Children and Youth in the Digital Age." While in grad school at American University, she helped organize the School of Communication's annual Institute for Strategic Communication for Nonprofits, held in conjunction with the Silverdocs Film Festival.

Leslie graduated from the Evergreen State College and earned her MA in Public Communication from American University.

Leslie Hatfield on the Power of Film

Documentaries are an effective vehicle for social change because of the dialogs they inspire. A good documentary bears witness to real lives and lends context to social issues that often need to be seen to be believed. A hopeful story can inspire, a story about injustice can infuriate; these are reactions that can usually be stifled, but when powerful images combine with narrative, there is a better chance for an opening, a shift in paradigm, that lets the information hit home and gets people talking.

The best example I can give of the power of this medium comes second-hand. My father, a man who once told me he was pretty sure that "organics" were a marketing scheme designed to get people to buy small and otherwise imperfect produce, saw The Real Dirt on Farmer John at a film festival in my hometown last fall, and was so moved that he immediately decided to join a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). I'd been talking to him about food for years, with few results, but I think that witnessing a personal struggle convinced him that his dollars were better spent supporting small farmers than industrial agriculture.

When I was working for Sustainable Table, I was blown away by the number of people who took the time to write to and tell us how much they loved The Meatrix, even several years after it came out. The series may not be described as documentary, but this genre, "edu-tainment," is powerful too, in its ability to reach viewers who may not want to see a feature-length documentary, and humor can make unappealing information more palatable.

Leslie Hatfield's Film Picks

Darwin's Nightmare: Aptly named, this film documents a worst-case evolutionary and economic scenario. It lays bare the shocking reality of a completely unsustainable system where, each day, planes fly in empty or bearing arms to war-torn, famine-infested Tanzania, and fly out laden with tons of fish bound for European markets, while those who work within the system often cannot afford to buy rice, let alone the fish they catch, process and guard. This is the kind of movie people need to see even though (or precisely because) the injustice it documents is so hard to watch.

Ladies of the Land: It's important to recognize the role of women in agriculture, especially in organic and sustainable farming. There is something almost maternal about running a small farm and finding ways to thrive without having to "get big." Women are one of the largest-growing groups of new farmers, yet they are rarely highlighted in the media. This film also tells the story of the new farmer, and the difficulties faced by those who've made the brave jump and shifted gears, often mid-career, in search of a more authentic lifestyle. If we're going to rebuild local food systems, we need more of these people.

The Real Dirt on Farmer John: Farmer John's quirky sensibility and love for feather boas breaks the mold of the stereotypical Midwestern farmer (and endeared him to me immediately). His story, told through video interviews and old super 8 footage, begins with his pastoral childhood and follows him into the 1960s when his farm became a counter-cultural center, through the farm-debt crisis of the 1980s, to see him emerge triumphant, as owner of the largest CSA farm in the US. This movie is about more than agriculture—it's about ostracization, disillusionment, redemption and how local food systems build community.

Eat at Bill's—Life at the Monterey Market: Farmer and new filmmaker Lisa Brenneis (who grows delicious tangerines in the Ojai Valley) has produced a beautiful, hopeful film; one that portrays the exhaustive work that goes into a local produce market and what a supportive role Monterey Market plays for small-scale farmers in California. It's a joy to see how owner Bill Fujimoto and his team enjoy the frantic pace of his market, and to witness some of the relationships that have grown there throughout the years.

Fed Up: Companies like Monsanto spend over 50 million dollars every year to convince consumers of the safety and benefits of biotechnology. At the very least, we don't know enough about the long-term effects of this technology to deem it safe or beneficial, so this film's message is particularly vital. Fed Up is so densely packed with information that it's almost too much to digest in one sitting, but anyone who eats in places where GM foods are not labeled (just about everywhere) should dig in and get educated.

Life and Debt: Not a food or farming movie per se, but this film casts an unflinchingly honest eye upon the World Monetary Fund and its devastating effects on the Jamaican economy: in particular the farming industry, which has been effectively shut out of its own market, as well as most of the international banana market. It is especially important to look at the impact of globalization on developing countries, and this film is particularly powerful because it contrasts what tourists see (and more importantly, do not see) when they vacation in Jamaica.

Broken Limbs: Filmmaker Guy Evans follows his father's reluctance to adapt to a global marketplace, even as he struggles to stay in business and his fellow apple farmers in Wenatchee, WA, drop like flies. By focusing on a few farmers who fall victim to the "get big or get out" mentality, this film lends a personal context to the problems with globalization. Just as important, Broken Limbs also highlights farmers who've successfully adapted to changing markets by switching over to more sustainable methods of food production.

King Corn: Most Americans have no idea just how much of this ubiquitous grain they ingest on a regular basis, or how subsidies factor into our diets. I would like to have seen more about the environmental impacts of all that corn production, but it's a great film for its digestibility, and it makes important connections between public consumption of high fructose corn syrup and health problems like obesity and diabetes. Also, the stop-motion pieces are amazing.