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Our Daily Bread
A film by Nikolaus Geyrhalter
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In sealed rooms, as sterile as computer microprocessor factories, chicks hatch while being closely monitored. A huge hose sucks salmon out of a fjord. Metal teeth chomp up fields of sunflowers which, thanks to chemicals, have withered at just the right time. On mechanized conveyer systems, chickens are cut up and pigs are gutted in seconds, although cows take a little longer.

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OUR DAILY BREAD reveals the little-known world of high-tech agriculture. In a series of visually stunning, continuously tracking, wide-screen images that seem right out of a science-fiction movie, we see the places where food is cultivated and processed: surreal landscapes optimized for agricultural machinery, clean rooms in cool industrial buildings designed for maximum efficiency, and elaborate machines that operate on a 'disassembly line' basis.

There's little space for humans here. They almost seem like flaws in this system: undersized and vulnerable, though they adapt as best they can, with chemical suits, respirators, ear protectors, and helmets. They do the jobs for which machines have not yet been invented.

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Dispensing entirely with explanatory commentary or 'talking-head' interviews, OUR DAILY BREAD unfolds on the screen like a disturbing dream: an endlessly fascinating flow of images, an insistent gaze, accompanied only by the persistent industrial soundtrack—whirring, clattering, booming, slurping—of the ingenious marvels of mechanization employed by agri-business.

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While this remarkable documentary will likely engender fascination, awe and even shock amongst viewers, OUR DAILY BREAD simply aims to show the industrial production of food as a reflection of our society's values: plenty of everything, made as quickly and as efficiently as modern technology permits.

"A superbly realized feature, stirring together art and knowledge as only the best documentaries can manage to do." —Doug Pratt, The DVD-Laser Disc Newsletter

"Genuinely riveting... it's not the easiest film to digest—but it's intensely important, and impossible to look away from or forget." —Andy Aaron, Very Short List

"One of the most profoundly revealing and thought-provoking documentaries I have seen... essential viewing... Very highly recommended." —Clark Douglas, DVD Verdict

"Alternately haunting and beautiful... disturbingly horrific... and downright bizarre... a poetic visualization of an Orwellian nightmare come true." —Lauren Wissot, Beyond the Green Door

"Enlightening... brings the reality home in a direct and profound way... I'd suggest everyone take a look at this documentary." —Gabrielle Harradine, Vegetarian Times

"An eye-opener... Composed with uncommon wisdom and vision... a wordless tone poem." —Chris Barsanti, PopMatters

"Award-winning, head-spinning, at times stomach-churning... a weirdly engrossing experience." —Curt Holman, Creative Loafing

"An invaluable document, and should be the first word in any honest discussion of animal rights or contemporary consumption... by turns harrowing and astounding." —John Lingan, Splice Today

"The 2001: A Space Odyssey of modern food production."—The Nation

"Devastating! A Must-See!"—The New York Times

"A rare achievement in the documentary film genre...reflexive, subtle and intelligent."—Leonardo Digital Reviews

"Casts a calmly unsettling spell...This is 'Fast Food Nation' envisioned, 'Koyaanisqatsi'-like, on a grand scale: 'Fast Food Planet.'"—The Chicago Tribune

"An invigoratingly subtle form of political cinema."—Cinema Scope

"Outstanding! Provocative! Eccentrically lovely and frequently horrifying."—Premiere

EcoCamera, 2007 Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal (RIDM)
2006 New York Film Festival
Grand Prize, 2006 Paris Intl. Festival of Films on the Environment
EcoCamera Award, 2006 Rencontres Internationales du Documentaire de Montréal
Science & Religion Prize, 2006 Visions du Réel
Best Film, 2006 ECOCINEMA Film Festival
Nominee, 2006 Prix Arte, European Film Academy
Joris Ivens Jury Award, 2005 Amsterdam Intl. Documentary Festival
  

92 minutes / color
German
Release: 2006
Copyright: 2005
UPC: 8-54565-00111-4
ISBN: 9786312778387
DVD Sale: $29.98

This DVD is sold above for home video use only. If you require a license for institutional use or Public Performance rights, click here.




Subject areas:
Agriculture, Biology, Business and Economics, Cultural Studies, Ecology, Economic Sociology, Economics, Environmental Film Festivals, Ethics, Food, Health Issues, On 35mm, Photography, Science and Technology, Science/Technology, US & Canadian Broadcast Rights

Related Links:
View a PDF of the Film's Press Kit
Official OUR DAILY BREAD Website
View Video Clips
Interview with Filmmaker Nikolaus Geyrhalter

Also available for rental on 35mm, please inquire.


Related Titles:
Just Eat It: Filmmakers and food lovers Jen and Grant dive into the issue of food waste from farm, through retail, all the way to the back of their own fridge.

Mondovino: The Series: This multi-generation, globe-trotting saga covers not only the entire gamut of wine making, but wine's place in a treacherously globalized and hyper-marketed world.

Slow Food Story: In 1986 Carlo Petrini, dispirited by the rapid rise of global fast food chains, launched Slow Food, an international movement to preserve traditional and regional cuisine.

Elsewhere: An epic journey through voices and sounds from elsewhere. Landscapes, outlooks on the world, outlooks on life: Desert, snow, valley, jungle, ice, rainforest. An homage to humanity at the beginning of the 21st Century.

Homo Sapiens: Abandoned landscapes of urban decay portend an ominous future in this wordless documentary.

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