#FIRSTLOOK: 2021 DEVOUR! FOOD FILM FEST

A Film Festival for people who love food, which basically is everyone! THE 2021 DEVOUR! FOOD FILM FEST, now in its 11th year, takes place in-person and online October 19-24, 2021. The Classic Film Tampopo will be the Opening Night Gala, followed by a Q&A with Food Network personality Bob Blumer.

The Festival this year promises more diversity and even includes collaborations with eight Indigenous chefs!

Other Films to screen at the Festival include:

●  Gather – Directed by Sanjay Rawal. From an ambitious Apache chef to a gifted Lakota high school student, Gather follows the stories of natives on the frontlines of a growing movement to reconnect with spiritual and cultural identities that were devastated by genocide.

●      Life of Ivanna – Ivanna, a 26-year-young Nenets mother of five children, lives in the Arctic region of northwest Siberia, driving her herd of reindeer in the tundra just as her family did for centuries. Due to climate change and a dwindling herd, she may be forced to make a dramatic life turn: to leave the tundra for the city.

●      The Magnitude of All Things – Jennifer Abbott’s new documentary merges stories from the frontlines of climate change with recollections of the loss of her sister, drawing intimate parallels between personal and planetary grief.

●      The Secret Path – A powerful visual representation of the life of Chanie Wenjack, this is an animated film adaptation of Gord Downie’s album and Jeff Lemire’s graphic novel. A musical retelling of Chanie’s story—from his escape from the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School to his subsequent and heartbreaking death from exposure.

●      Fries! The Movie – Directed by Michael Steed. Every deliciously salty and oft-overlooked crinkle of the french fry. It takes us on a journey around the world—from the origin of the potato in Peru, through the highly contested early history of the fry in Europe and the United States.

●      Délicieux – France, 1789, just before the Revolution. With the help of a surprising young woman, a chef who has been sacked by his master finds the strength to free himself from his position as a servant and opens THE first restaurant.

The Festival’s CHEFS & SHORTS Programme promises plenty of Indigenous snacks and Short Films at Valley Drive-In:

●      Names for Snow – This short follows Rebecca Thomassie, an Inuk woman, around Kangirsuk as she learns the 52 Inuktitut words for snow.

●      Chishkale: The Blessing of the Acorn – Bernadette Smith weaves the story of her Tan Oak conservation efforts in Northern California into a contemporary Indigenous dance piece created to honour the sacred, traditional food of California Natives.

●      Connection – A lifelong angler, Autumn Harry had never fished beyond the waters of her reservation, until she picked up a fly rod. On a trip to Washington to cast for steelhead, she unpacks what it means to overcome her own image of fly fishers and uses the sport to fight for conservation.

●      Wajak: At the End of the Lake – On a Sunday morning, as the sun is rising, Peter Poucachiche wakes his grandson up to go moose hunting. A rather silent journey on Kitiganik’s territory.

●      Pituamkek: A Mi’kmaq Heritage Landscape – A film about moving Reconciliation with First Nations in Canada forward, Pituamkek is a proposed new National Park Reserve in PEI that has also been home to the Mi’kmaq peoples of Epekwitk for more than 10,000 years.

●      Sara Mama: Sacred Seed – In the Peruvian Andes, a Quechua boy shows his special relation to Sara Mama and reveals the knowledge within its productive cycles.

●      Ealát – “As long as the reindeer exist here, so do we.” Through Elle Márjá Eira’s eyes, we follow her family in different seasons with their reindeer herd. A story about living and surviving in Sámireindeer husbandry in strange times.

TIFF ’21 selection WILDHOOD, which was filmed along the Bay of Fundy in Mi’kma’ki (Nova Scotia). It is set in a rural trailer park, where central character Link lives with his toxic father and younger half-brother Travis. When Link discovers his Mi’kmaw mother could still be alive, it lights a flame to make a run for a better life. As the boys’ journey across Mi’kma’ki, Link finds community, identity, and love. The Film will be the Festival’s Closing Night Film.

Tickets are now on sale at www.devourfest.com.