Search our
catalog:




Help



Sign up for our mailing list

RSS file with updates in XML
RSS Info
 

View titles
by subject:


 
Home New Release Title List Subject List Ordering Info Media Resources Online Catalogs

Our Daily Bread

A Film by Nikolaus Geyrhalter


film still

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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
Release Date: 2006
Copyright Date: 2005
Sale: $440
Rental/VHS: $150


In theaters now!

Subject areas: Agriculture, Business and Economics, Cultural Studies, Ecology, Economic Sociology, Economics, Environmental Film Festivals, Ethics, Health Issues, On 35mm, Photography, Science and Technology, Science/Technology

Related Links:

View a PDF of the Film's Press Kit

Send an e-postcard to a friend

Official OUR DAILY BREAD Website

View Video Clips

Interview with Filmmaker Nikolaus Geyrhalter

Also available for rental on 35mm, please inquire.


Home | New | Titles | Subjects | Ordering | Resources | PDFs
Weblog | Current Concerns | Banner Ads | Video Clips | Site Map | RSS
Closed Captions | Study Guides | Postcards | Filmmakers | Screenings


Last updated 05/09/2008