Filmography - Food

This is a selective list of video holdings in the American University Library. Filmographies are created by doing multiple keyword searches in the catalog to capture as many titles on a topic as possible. 

For complete, up-to-date holdings please search the library catalog search box on the Media Services homepage. (http://www.american.edu/library/mediaservices/) Finding Aids on the same page includes other subject oriented content.

For more information take a look at the Streaming Video Guides and Browsing Collections.

Additionally there are over 7000 streaming videos in Films-On-Demand on food topics. Search "food" here: 

 

 

 

 

Beauty mark: Body image & the race for perfection. 2009. 1 videodisc (53 min.). "[Diana] Israel, a Boulder-based psychotherapist and former champion triathlete, talks candidly about her long and agonizing personal struggle with eating disorders and obsessive exercising, fearlessly confronting her own painful past as she attempt to come to terms with American culture's unhealthy fixation on self-destructive ideals of beauty and competitiveness.  The film lends context to Israel's personal odyssey with fascinating insights from athletes, bodybuilders, fashion models, and inner-city teens, as well as prominent cultural critics and authors" -- Container. DVD 6876

Consuming kids: The commercialization of childhood. 2008. 1 videodisc (72 min.). "Consuming Kids throws desperately needed light on the practices of a relentless multi-billion dollar marketing machine that now sells kids and their parents everything from junk food and violent video games to bogus educational products and the family car. Drawing on the insights of health care professionals, children's advocates, and industry insiders, the film focuses on the explosive growth of child marketing in the wake of deregulation, showing how youth marketers have used the latest advances in psychology, anthropology, and neuroscience to transform American children into one of the most powerful and profitable consumer demographics in the world. Consuming Kids pushes back against the wholesale commercialization of childhood, raising urgent questions about the ethics of children's marketing and its impact on the health and well-being of kids."--Container. DVD 5987 and Streaming video

Bitter melons. 2005. 1 videodisc (30 min.). Portrays the difficulty of survival in the central Kalahari Desert in southern Africa. A native musician, a member of a Bushman group called the G/wi, performs songs about animals, the land, and daily life. Describes the G/wi, traditional music, dances, children's games, and hunting, planting, and food preparation. DVD 5715 and Streaming video

Chicken soup. 200-1973. 1 videodisc (14 min.). "This video traces an elderly Polish Jewish couple, step-by-step, through the painstaking preparation as well as the more enjoyable part - the eating - of this true delicacy"--Container. DVD 6965

Dry wood. 1979. 1 streaming video (37 min). Documents the music and customs of French-speaking Blacks in southwest Louisiana. Focuses on two families in a rice farming community, capturing their humble, open lives through their older, rural style of Cajun music. With some captions. Streaming video
 

Fast food women. 2008. 1 videodisc (28 min.). Examines the working conditions of women working in fast food restaurants in eastern Kentucky. DVD 5898

The garden. 2008. 1 videodisc (80 min.). The fourteen-acre community garden at 41st and Alameda in South Central Los Angeles is the largest of its kind in the United States. Started as a form of healing after the devastating L.A. riots in 1992, the South Central Farmers have since created a miracle in one of the country's most blighted neighborhoods. Growing their own food. Feeding their families. Creating a community. But now, bulldozers are poised to level their 14-acre oasis. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6475

Gefilte fish. 2005. 1 videodisc (15 min.). A light-hearted look at the way three different generations of women prepare the traditional delicacy. Provides cooking instructions and chuckles, as well as a short examination of the ways people reconcile tradition with modern life. DVD 6967

Hot bagels: The hole story. The American Jewish experience. 200-1982. 1 videodisc (12 min.). Illuminates the history of the bagel through archival footage and stills, and demonstrates both the modern method of mass producing bagels by specialized machinery and the more traditional hand method. DVD 6966

I like killing flies. 2007. 1 videodisc (79 min.). With more than 900 items on its menu, all made from scratch in a tiny kitchen humming with improvised Rube Goldberg-like contraptions, Shopsin's has long been a quirky gem of New York food culture.  Follows Kenny Shopsin, his family and customers as the restaurant looks for a new place to go. DVD 3658

Ilé aiyé = The house of life. 2004. 1 videodisc (51 min.). David Byrne's breathtaking, impressionistic documentary on Candomble, the African spirit cult of the Bahia region of Brazil, that explores the influences on daily life and culture of the people of Brazil through music, art, religion, food and more. DVD 4101

The Jewish Americans. 2008. 2 videodiscs (360 min.). Chronicles the 350 year saga of immigrants who gradually wove themselves into the fabric of American life without abandoning their cherished traditions. DVD 3812 and Streaming video 1 2 3

Killing us softly 4: Advertising's image of women. 2010. 1 videodisc (45 min.). "In this new, highly anticipated update of her pioneering Killing us softly series, the first in more than a decade, Jean Kilbourne takes a fresh look at how advertising traffics in distorted and destructive ideals of femininity. The film marshals a range of new print and television advertisements to lay bare a stunning pattern of damaging gender stereotypes--images and messages that too often reinforce unrealistic, and unhealthy, perceptions of beauty, perfection, and sexuality. By bringing Kilbourne's groundbreaking analysis up to date, Killing us softly 4 stands to challenge a new generation of students to take advertising seriously, and to think critically about popular culture and its relationship to sexism, eating disorders, and gender violence"--Container. DVD 7394 and Streaming video
     

The meaning of food. 2005. 1 videodisc (180 min.). So many cultural and religious celebrations center on food, but how did this come to be? Discover the rich and varied history of American dining in this three-episode series. DVD 1237

Politiki kouzina = A touch of spice. 2007. 1 videodisc (104 min.). Celebrates the food rituals of the Greek population of Istanbul, Turkey. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5502

Production notes: fast food for thought. 1986. 1 videodisc (28 min.). A collection of production notes for television commercials advertising fast foods. DVD 6400

Slim hopes: Advertising and the obsession with thinness. 2002. 1 videodisc (30 min.). "Slim Hopes offers an in-depth analysis of how female bodies are depicted in advertising images and the devastating effects of those images on women's health. Addressing the relationship between these images and the obsession of girls and women with dieting and thinness, the program offers a new way to think about life-threatening eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, and a well-documented critical perspective on the social impact of advertising."--Container. DVD 7885 and Streaming video

Slow food revolution. 2003. 1 videodisc (52 min.). This film visits Italy, Mexico, and Australia to record the growing international eco-gastronomic movement known as "slow food movement". In opposition to the "fast food" world, the goal of the movement is to encourage people to slow down and enjoy food, protect traditional culture and the environment, encourage regional food production, and food education. DVD 4769

Spend it all. 200-1971. 1 videodisc (41 min.). "The Cajuns of southwest Louisiana still retain the language, camaraderie and old-world spirit of their French-speaking Acadian ancestors. This film captures the intense bravado and vitality of their lives in scenes such as quarter horse racing, coffee roasting, accordion building, cooking and eating supper along with the intoxicating music of the Balfa Brothers, Marc Savoy, Nathan Abshire and others"--Container of video cassette version. DVD 4479

Taboo. 2004. 4 videodiscs (611 min.). A series from the National Geographic Channel displays the world's exotic cultural taboos consisting of rituals, beliefs and practices handed down from generation to generation. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2431

Thin. 2006. 1 videodisc (102 min.). This film takes us inside the walls of Renfrew Center, a residential facility for the treatment of women with eating disorders, closely following four young women who have spent their lives starving themselves-- often to the verge of death. DVD 4853

Toxic sludge is good for you: The public relations industry unspun. 2003. 1 videodisc (45 min.). Tracks the development of the PR industry from early efforts to win popular American support for World War I to the role of crisis management in controlling the damage to corporate image. The video analyzes the tools public relations professionals use to shift our perceptions including a look at the coordinated PR campaign to slip genetically engineered food past public scrutiny. DVD 5686 and Streaming video