The third event in this summer’s Good Food Festival Film Series will feature Queen of the Sun, a documentary directed by Taggart Siegel that explores the phenomenon known as “colony collapse disorder” from the perspectives of biodynamic beekeepers, farmers, entomologists, and advocates for more sustainable agriculture. Among the notable contributors to the film are Michael Pollan, Vandana Shiva, Raj Patel, Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini, and May Berenbaum.
Following Queen of the Sun will be a panel discussion and audience Q&A with Denise Ritchie, Ruth Askren, and Scott Kleinrock. Lisa Lucas Talbot, chapter leader of Slow Food Los Angeles and Slow Food USA’s regional governor for southern California, will moderate the discussion.
When: Wednesday, August 10, 2011 beginning at 7:30pm
Where: The Aero Theatre, 1328 Montana Avenue, Santa Monica
Cost: Tickets range from $7.00 to $11.00 and are available online or at the Aero Theatre box office.
Denise Ritchie is a founder of Malibu Compost and a passionate advocate for and educator about biodynamic practices. Denise has also led efforts to provide sanctuary for organically raised dairy cows that would otherwise be sold for slaughter or to a conventional farm.
Ruth Askren is a volunteer with Backwards Beekeepers, a Los Angeles organization that promotes organic, treatment-free beekeeping and helps rescue and place wild swarms of bees that would otherwise be exterminated.
Scott Kleinrock is the manager of The Ranch at the Huntington Botanical Gardens, an extraordinary experimental urban agriculture field station that both explores productive gardening methods and serves as an educational resource. In his capacity as Ranch Manager, Scott serves as planner, gardener, and educator, sharing the lessons of the Ranch with the greater Los Angeles community.
The next event in this series will be a screening of the new documentary The Harvest/La Cosecha, a new documentary that provides an unvarnished view of child and migrant labor in the United States’ food system. The film will be followed by a panel discussion about the labor issues that are invisible to most consumers’ eyes but are critically important to any conversation about making our food system fairer and safer. The September event will be held at the Aero Theatre on Wednesday, September 14, 2011, the opening night of the Good Food Festival & Conference.
Films in the series have been selected by the Good Food Festival Film Committee (Lisa Lucas Talbot, Laura Avery, Marguerite Kenner, Susan Haymer, and Corinne Bourdeau) with the generous assistance of the staff of the American Cinematheque.
The inaugural Good Food Festival & Conference, launched as part of the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market, will be held September 14 through 18 and will feature an exceptional array of speakers, demonstrations, and events that will celebrate the bounty of our foodshed and consider the state of our food system. More information is being posted daily on the Good Food Festival website.
We look forward to seeing Slow Food members and friends at the event on August 10 and in the meantime invite you to enjoy the trailer for Queen of the Sun:
