“Make Food Not War” is the motto of the 10th Culinary Cinema, which will be held from February 14 to 19, 2016.
“War is not an appropriate means for solving problems such as racism, poverty or climate change. The cuisines of the world are better suited to this task. Food connects people and hospitality contributes to international understanding,” says Festival Director Dieter Kosslick about the slogan.
The programme of the 10th Culinary Cinema will present eleven topical feature-length films on the relationship between food, culture and politics.
Following the 7.30 pm screenings of the films in the main programme, star chefs Andoni Luis Aduriz, Sven Elverfeld, Michael Kempf, Sonja Frühsammer as well as Alexander Dressel with the “Jeunes Restaurateurs” will take turns serving a menu inspired by one of the films in the Gropius Mirror Restaurant.
The international premiere of Pep Gatell’s documentary Campo a través. Mugaritz, intuyendo un camino (Off-Road. Mugaritz, Feeling a Way) will open this year’s programme. Andoni Luis Aduriz, two-star chef of the “Mugaritz” restaurant in San Sebastián, and Pep Gatell have succeeded in making a film about teamwork and the realisation of ideas that does without the usual ingredients, such as interviews or scripted commentary. For the second time, Aduriz will create a menu for a film shown in Berlin. For the past ten years, “Mugaritz” has ranked in the top ten of the World’s 100 Best Restaurants.
In the documentary Noma - My Perfect Storm by Pierre Deschamps, we can observe the approach and passion of internationally celebrated chef René Redzepi, founder of the New Nordic Cuisine, at “noma”, his restaurant in Copenhagen. Sven Elverfeld (three Michelin stars, “Aqua”, Wolfsburg) will cook the meal. The "noma" can also be seen in a second film in the late-night programme.
Michael Pollan, one of the world’s most successful authors on food, has two productions in the programme. His current bestselling book “Cooked” formed the basis for a documentary television series produced by Oscar prize-winner Alex Gibney. Cooked - Fire revolves around this element’s archaic power for hunting and cooking. In Cooked - Air we learn about still another element’s crucial impact in the kitchen. Chef Michael Kempf (two Michelin stars, “Facil”, Berlin) will prepare the food.
In Need for Meat, pleasure-loving TV-reporter Marijn Frank from Amsterdam struggles with her insatiable appetite for meat. Berlin’s top chef Sonja Frühsammer (one Michelin star, “Frühsammers Restaurant”, Berlin) will create the meal.
The transformation of Singapore’s versatile street food scene and the resulting loss in life quality is the topic of the docufiction Wanton Mee by Eric Khoo. Alexander Dressel (one Michelin star, “Restaurant Friedrich Wilhelm”, Potsdam) and some of the “Jeunes Restaurateurs” will serve the themed menu on this evening.
No food will be served following the late screenings that begin with Portret van een tuin (Portrait of a Garden), in which filmmaker Rosie Stapel documents the art of plant care in a Dutch kitchen garden. InKivalina, Berlinale Talent graduate Gina Abatemarco from the USA unobtrusively observes the inhabitants of Kivalina, a village in Alaska, that will, according to predictions, be inundated within the next ten years. In Ants on a Shrimp, filmmaker Maurice Dekkers accompanies star chef René Redzepi when he relocates his restaurant, "noma", and its entire team to Tokyo for six weeks. In Café Nagler, Mor Kaplansky from Tel Aviv recreates the legend of this establishment, which played a role in her own family’s history, with the help of present-day bohemian Berliners. Filmmaker and producer Michael Schwarz has taken Michael Pollan’s classic work In Defense of Food and made a congenial documentary that not only clarifies contradictory assertions about what constitutes the right nutrition but also answers the popular question: What should I eat? The film will also be shown as part of the “Youth Food Cinema” at 10 am on February 19. Once again star chef Alexander Dressel will cook a meal with students from the John F. Kennedy School Berlin.
“For ten years now we have organized Culinary Cinema with the intention of taking cooking more seriously again,” says curator Thomas Struck and asks: “Why in the world are people giving up their skills in the kitchen and using so many convenience foods?” As Slow Food President Carlo Petrini commented, it would probably be healthier to eat the packaging.
In conclusion, Culinary Cinema Goes Kiez will present The Singhampton Project at City Kino Wedding and the “Restaurant Pastis” in the Centre Français de Berlin at 6.30 pm on February 19. German-Canadian chef Michael Stadtländer and landscape artist Jean Paul Ganem will demonstrate that “food tastes best when eaten outside”.
The historical short film How to Build an Igloo (National Film Board of Canada, 1949) and Vormittags-Spuk (Ghosts before Breakfast, Hans Richter, 1928) will complete this year’s programme.
At “TeaTime” - at 4.30 pm on February 17 in the Gropius Mirror Restaurant - Michael Pollan (“Cooked”) will speak with Patricia Schäfer about his experiences as an author.
In cooperation with “Markthalle Neun”, the Berlinale Street Food Market will again set up its trucks on Joseph-von-Eichendorff-Gasse at the corner of Alte Potsdamer Straße (Feb 10 - 21, 2016).
Tickets for Culinary Cinema will go on sale starting at 10 am on February 8, 2016 at central sales points in the Arkaden at Potsdamer Platz, at Kino International, Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Audi City Berlin, as well as online at www.berlinale.de.
The films in the Culinary Cinema programme 2016:
Ants on a Shrimp - Netherlands
By Maurice Dekkers
Documentary
World premiere
Café Nagler - Israel / Germany
By Mor Kaplansky
Documentary
International premiere
Campo a través. Mugaritz, intuyendo un camino. (Off-Road. Mugaritz, Feeling a Way.) - Spain
By Pep Gatell
Documentary
International premiere
Cooked – Fire / Air - USA
By Alex Gibney / Ryan Miller
Documentary-Series
World premiere
How to Build an Igloo - Canada
By Douglas Wilkinson
In Defense of Food - USA
By Michael Schwarz
Documentary
German premiere
Kivalina - USA
By Gina Abatemarco
Documentary
World premiere
Need for Meat - Netherlands
By Marijn Frank
Documentary
German premiere
Noma – My Perfect Storm – United Kingdom
By Pierre Deschamps
Documentary
German premiere
Portret van een tuin (Portrait of a Garden) – Netherlands
By Rosie Stapel
Documentary
International premiere
The Singhampton Project - Canada
By Jonathan Staav
Documentary
European premiere
Vormittags-Spuk - Germany
By Hans Richter
Wanton Mee - Singapur
By Eric Khoo
Docu-fiction
German premiere
