In Hungry, which world-premiered February 2 in IFFR’s Harbour section, Austrian director Susanne Brandstaetter serves up a sobering account of how, in the not-so-distant future, humankind has allowed itself to become extinct.
But with no humans left on Earth to explain exactly why this, it is left to an alien visitor to the planet determine the sequence of events, the “cause and effect,” that led to our demise as a species. Luckily, expert transcripts remained, comprising data from scientists and professors alike that the alien can assess; all the time his search for evidence conducted against a backdrop of post-apocalyptic devastation. These experts, from the fields of biology, ecology, botany, economics, food politics, agriculture and (anti)monopoly law, describe in depressing detail our inability as a species to act as protectors of the planet that had previously sustained us.
The alien investigator hears how the likes of soil erosion, depleted agricultural biomes and climate-change hugely reduced the nutritional value of the food we once consumed, leading it to conclude: “Humans managed to make food – the very thing they needed to survive – into something that helped them not to survive.”
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Multinational conglomerates, whose raison d’etre was pure profit, dominated global food production before humankind’s demise, their malign processes leading inexorably towards mammoth decreases in food quality and its nutritional efficacy. As Zephyr Teachout, attorney and professor at Fordham University, says (or at least said, before the death of our species), “monopoly is tyranny.”
“At their heart, [multinational conglomerates are] vehicles for amassing wealth and power in ways that deeply destabilize our societies and the future of civilization,” Teachout describes them.
But in a twist, the alien investigator is able to go back in time to offer us some pre-elimination advice. No, it isn’t too late to restrict the power of the multinationals and their stranglehold over our health and well-being. “Time and appropriate action can prevent extinction,” says the alien, but that still involves the disentanglement of corporations from the governmental offices of state, and a collective will on the part of humankind to wrestle back control of our resources and our means of food production.
Director Brandstaetter embarked upon the film back in 2016, driven by both curiosity and a sense of outrage. “I really went down this rabbit hole, basically researching in so many different directions. Whenever I make a film, the curiosity is there… but I was astonished at some of these facts that I was uncovering.”
“In 2016, I was researching about food supplements and how they are actually not regulated. And then I started to go deeper and deeper into all the industrial side of the production of all these things, and then started to look into how that was affecting our environment,” she adds. “And the deeper I got into it, I was finding these mind-boggling facts. One of the things that really absolutely hit me was when Lewis Ziska (plant physiologist and associate Professor at Columbia University) says that this is affecting evolution. It’s affecting [the development of] all plant life, all animal life on our planet.”
In fact, there were so many rabbit holes of research to go down that Brandstaetter was forced to limit the time spent on each subject, and instead present her evidence along a chain of cause and effect, ending with the role of the corporates and the need to curtail their activities.
“One of the main things I wanted to say with the film was that there is something we can do. But I have always felt, as admirable as all these efforts are that are being made in all these different directions, I’ve often just felt we’re not looking at the very root of the problem,” Brandstaetter stresses. “So I wanted to get down to why is this? Why has this gotten so far? Why are all these things happening? I mean, you can look at every little part and say we have to do something about emissions, we have to do something about pesticides, we have to do something about air quality. You can go on and on, but why is this even happening? Why is this being perpetuated?”
“That’s what I wanted to figure out and get to the bottom of. And for me, this was an answer…I want to raise awareness, and I want the film to be so thought-provoking that people will perhaps even be willing to join in and support these groups that are fighting against the complete power of these huge, huge transnational companies that are just getting bigger and bigger and bigger.”
What makes the whole process even more risible is the blind, self-centred profit-led short-termism of these companies and their personnel. “As Marion Nestle (molecular biologist, nutritionist, author and Professor Emerita at New York University) says in the film, “it’s not that these people are evil. It’s not that they’re trying to make people sick. They just want to sell product.”
In terms of impact, Brandstaetter will devise a campaign together with sales company Impronta Films a little further down the line. “But I would like it, of course, to be seen by as wide an audience as possible, even though it is a very unique way to approach the subject matter and not, you know, a mainstream documentary,” she says. “We feel that it could even be very attractive to kids who are interested in finding out more and becoming involved. And I’m sure that there are NGOs that definitely would be interested in supporting the film, especially since many of the scientists and experts themselves are involved with different NGOs and groups that are active.”
The director herself underwent a 180-degree lifestyle change when researching and making the film. “I completely changed my whole way of living and the kinds of food I eat and what we were buying. And that definitely made a big difference for me. I’ve become much more aware…Any film that I make, I become completely immersed in the subject. I’m like, obsessed.”
“That’s one of the reasons why I love making documentaries so much. I mean, I’m open to that. I want that. It’s essential to me as part of my being, going this route and completely immersing myself. And yeah, I’m hoping that when people see the film that they’ll, in a way, be going on the same kind of journey,” Brandstaetter ends, offering up even more food for thought.
