First We Eat

First We Eat
Film poster
Directed bySuzanne Crocker
Written bySuzanne Crocker
Produced bySuzanne Crocker
CinematographySuzanne Crocker
Edited byMichael Brockington
Caroline Christie
Astrid Schau-Larsen
Music byCorb Lund
Alex Houghton
Jesse Cooke
Marieke Hiensch
Andrew Laviolette
Production
company
Drift Productions
Release date
Running time
101 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

First We Eat is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Suzanne Crocker and released in 2020.[1] The film documents the attempts of Crocker and her family, after a landslide temporarily blocked highway access to their hometown of Dawson City, Yukon, to spend a full year exclusively consuming food that had been hunted, fished, gathered, grown or raised locally, while carefully considering the environmental and social impacts of modern commercial transport of food.[2] The documentary film premiered on May 28, 2020 on Hot Docs.

Production

Crocker first announced the project in 2017.[3] The film's production website also incorporates an ongoing collaborative project on food security, including guides to foraging for edible wild plants, a seed guide to fruits and vegetables that grow well in Yukon, and a recipe guide to dishes that can be cooked with local ingredients available in the Dawson City area.[4]

Release

The film premiered as part of the 2020 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.[5] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada it was not screened theatrically, but premiered as part of the festival's online streaming component.[6] It was named one of five winners of the festival's Rogers Audience Award, alongside the films The Walrus and the Whistleblower, 9/11 Kids, The Forbidden Reel and There's No Place Like This Place, Anyplace.[7]

It was opening film at 18th EBS International Documentary Film Festival held from 23 to 28 August 2021 in Seoul, South Korea. It was screened on August 23, 2021.[8]

References

  1. ^ Susan G. Cole, "Hot Docs Review: ‘First We Eat’". Point of View, May 26, 2020.
  2. ^ Gregory Strong, "Dawson City family eats only local food for a year in documentary ‘First We Eat’". Toronto Star, May 27, 2020.
  3. ^ Lori Garrison, "First we eat: Dawson woman to subsist on local food only for a year". Yukon News, July 6, 2017.
  4. ^ Lori Fox, "It’s Ridiculously Hard to Eat Local in the Yukon". Vice, January 30, 2019.
  5. ^ Daniele Alcinii, "Twenty-three Canadian titles among Hot Docs virtual lineup". Playback, May 5, 2020.
  6. ^ Garnet Fraser, "Hot Docs to stream dozens of films in new digital version of festival". Toronto Star, May 5, 2020.
  7. ^ Lauren Malyk, "Hot Docs names $50K Audience Award winners". Playback, June 8, 2020.
  8. ^ Yoo Kyung-sun (August 23, 2021). "EBS국제다큐영화제, 올해도 관객이 심사합니다" [EBS International Documentary Film Festival, this year the audience will judge]. Kyunghyang Newspaper (in Korean). Naver. Retrieved August 23, 2021.