Documentary Exploring the Local Food Movement Comes to Hollins Feb. 23

         Roanoke, Va. – The farmers and chefs behind the effort to bring good food back to the table and health back to local communities are the focal point of the feature-length documentary Ingredients, which will be screened by producer and cinematographer Brian Kimmel on Wednesday, February 23 at 7 p.m. in Hollins University’s Richard Wetherill Visual Arts Center Auditorium. Admission is free.

            Narrated by Emmy Award-winning actress Bebe Neuwirth, Ingredients travels across the United States from the diversified farms of the Hudson River and Willamette Valleys to the kitchens of celebrated chefs Alice Waters, Peter Hoffman and Greg Higgins to show the collaborative work that has resulted in great tasting food and an explosion of consumer awareness about the benefits of eating local. 

According to the film’s Web site, “Attention being paid to the local food movement comes at a time when the failings of the current industrialized food system are becoming all too clear. For the first time in history, our children’s generation is expected to have a shorter lifespan than our own. The quality, taste and nutritional value of the food we eat have dropped sharply over the last 50 years. Shipped from ever-greater distances, we have literally lost sight of where our food comes from and in the process we’ve lost a vital connection to our local community and to our health.

“Ingredients illustrates how people around the country are working to revitalize that connection.”

Mark M. Corcoran of The Independent said of Ingredients, “This beautifully made and photographed film’s very positive tone was the antithesis of last year’s Food, Inc., which was a scathing, but well-deserved, indictment of agribusiness. This fabulous and informative film will make you hungry and have you running to the nearest farmer’s market eager to eat what’s in season and grown locally.” Eric Shiapak of Examiner.com noted, “Ingredients was one of the most expertly crafted and most effective documentaries about food that I have ever seen.”

Hollins’ screening of Ingredients is made possible by the Darci Ellis Godhard Fund for Social Justice. For more information, call (540) 362-6451.