Let the future begin, kimchi air conditioner is here

February 15, 2006

Romantic kimchi photo courtesy of “Do the Bart” Charlotte Yong San Gullach

Kimchi is pickled cabbage (or radish or mustard leaf or…) and I feel quite comfortable in reporting that it is one of the top five most delicious things you can put in your mouth. It is Gawd’s own comfort food, made with generous amounts of fresh garlic, ginger and red peppers, it is crazy healthy. So healthy, that an entire nation and a large population of several other nations believe that kimchi can prevent illness. I belong to one of those nations. Kimchi Nation. Kimchi also has a farty smell, but regular culiblog readers know that I just live for that.

Museum of Kimchi photo courtesy of NihaoGirl

And if all that weren’t reason enough to get a leg up on the kimchi altar, apparently kimchi can also kill the avian flu virus H5N1 and is soon to be used in the manufacture of air conditioners. No Fred, not hair conditioners, AIR conditioners.

Snowy vats of kimchi fermenting in the park courtesy of Polish Sausage Queen

Today Reuters reported that: South Korean firm LG Electronics is poised to start marketing an air conditioner with a filter made using an enzyme from the pungent national dish kimchi that is aimed at protecting against the bird flu virus. “We developed the filter with the aim of protecting people against bird flu,” LG spokeswoman Park Se-won said by telephone, citing four studies from domestic and overseas institutions that she said showed the filter eliminated the deadly H5N1 virus.

Kimchi pots in the public space by Bryan Hughes

Unfortunately the air conditioners will use only the enzyme from the kimchi and will not transmit its smell. This is a mistake waiting to happen and I would like to urge you to get on the horn immédiatement to let LG Electronics know how wrong that would be.

Thank you Willem for this culi tip. You know I love the kimchi.

Glamour shot of kimchi courtesy of a person with wonderful photographic skills and whose name I cannot read because it is written in Korean

A list of links to images and air condioner manufacturers for Kimchi researchers and cultural activists.

• culiblog writes about kimchi
• Reuters on the Kimchi air conditioner
• Flickr kimchi tag
• LG Electronics online contact form in Dutch
• Romantic kimchi photo courtesy of “Do the Bart” Charlotte Yong San Gullach
• Museum of Kimchi photo courtesy of NihaoGirl
• Snowy vats of kimchi fermenting in the park courtesy of Polish Sausage Queen
• Kimchi pots in the public space by Bryan Hughes
• Glamour shot of kimchi courtesy of a person with wonderful photographic skills and whose name I cannot read because it is written in Korean

technorati tags: kimchi, avianflu, South Korea

Kimchi, the comfort food of the gawds courtesy of culiblog

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When fish fall in love

February 13, 2006

film still from When Fish Fall in Love, shows main character Atieh, her daughter and sisters preparing orange syrup in the garden. Image used without permission

When it comes to food-related film, I couldn’t have made a better start at the Rotterdam International Film Festival. Drawing Restraint 9 had me reeling for days. Good for Drawing Restraint, bad for all the others that I saw directly afterwards. I had all but given up hope for finding a new approach to the genre, when I went to see the last film on my list.

When Fish Fall in Love saved me from being mired in bourgeois feel-good movies, films that are little more than romantic comedies with chefs and kitchens, gratuitous food porn, films that make audiences twitter at the thought of eating bull’s testicles. Fish Fall in Love is Iranian theatre director Ali Raffi’i’s first feature about two lovers being reunited after a twenty-year separation, and a new generation of about-to-be lovers, about to be separated.

Ex-political prisoner and Iranian émigré Aziz returns to his home at a Caspian Sea coastal village, where he finds that his former beloved Atieh, her daughter and two sisters have appropriated his family home and turned it into a restaurant. The film is shot like an old postcard from your grandparents’ seaside holiday, complete with long images of regional specialities. In this film, no dish leaves the kitchen without making a cameo. Can you imagine jewelled rice doing the red-carpet walk at Cannes?

Ali Raffi’i spoke to the audience before the screening, explaining that this film was about the difference between the way his and the generation now in their twenties, express love for one another. His intricately developed characters convey the complicated situation of a generation (Aziz and Atieh) whose political passion (may have necessarily) precedes their passion for each other. This contrasts sharply with the generation of Atieh’s daughter Touka and her Teheran beloved Reza, who are even driven to criminal acts in the hope of supporting their love.

Admirably, Raffi’i endeavoured to show a different view of woman than what he described as ‘ordinarily portrayed in Iranian cinema’; a woman whose destiny is not dependent on the presence or hope for presence of a man in her life. Not being sufficiently familiar with Iranian cinema to judge, I had to think, ‘Heq, come on over here, that’s a hole in the market!’ Until now, the art installation videos of Shirin Neshat and the British documentary filmmaker Kim Longinotto’s Divorce Iranian Style were until now, my sole influences.

While Atieh is a strong character, supporting her daughter, two of her sisters and herself by running a small restaurant, she is also always really nervous about this role. Preparing lunch and dinner for only twenty, though she’s been doing it for years, seems to be a monumental feat for her. Among the many kitchen shots of brilliantly presented ‘home-style’ cooking, the viewer is treated to beads of sweat on noses and upper lips, the wiping off of sweat from brows and the drenched backs of clothing. I’m thinking, ‘Sister, what you need is a smaller menu.’ But Atieh’s unwieldy menu seems to represent traditional culture and her uncomfortable relationship with it.

The film’s ending is deliciously open, giving few clues as to how Aziz and Atieh will give shape to their deep love and respect for one another in the future.This combined with Raffi’i’s rich characters have given me room to identify completely with love’s consequences for Atieh and Aziz. All that I am willing to give away, is that there is a cottage involved. I know that the next time I make orange syrup, this film will be the first thing on my mind.

• Film review of When Fish Fall in Love on Teheran Avenue
• Iranian Food Photos on Flickr
• Film Festival Rotterdam entry about When Fish Fall in Love
• Forget Martha’s Vineyard, I’m going to Iran
• Women Make Movies on Kim Longinotto
• About Ali Rafi’i as a theatre director

technorati tags: International Film Festival Rotterdam, film, food-related film, cinema, Rotterdam, When Fish Fall in Love, Ali Rafi’i

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Food-related film at the Berlin International Film Festival

February 9, 2006

Pack up your yurt, we’re moving to the steppes of Berlin for a week, where it’s much colder than it was in Rotterdam, and where a yurt will come in handy. The craziness begins today at the Berlinale, the Berlin International Film Festival. Culiblog will be attending the madness for an entire week, from Saturday the 11th until the 19th, reporting on all food-related films and presentations.

This year there is a glut of food-related film because aside from the regular programme, food, hunger and taste are the subject of the Berlinale Talent Campus, a platform within the Berlinale festival. The Berlinale Talent Campus creates opportunities for young filmmakers to meet with les eminences grises from the film industry and the folks from the more active side of food and food culture as well. Alice Waters, Vandana Shiva, Carlo Petrini will all be there.

Once again, I’ve created a culiblog food-related film selection culled form the entire Berlinale programme for those willing to move beyond Babette’s Feast. Oh dear, it’s 2006 and they’re actually showing Babette’s Feast!

The culiblog selection at the the 56th International Berlinale Film Festival:

• 
  Saturday, 11.02.2006:
  23:00: - Harvest (Regain), a Marcel Pagnol classic! (Manon de la Source)

  Sunday, 12.02.2006
  10:30: - Eat and Shoot the Indie Way, presentation with a.o. Alice Waters, Angie Lam, Vandana Shiva and Slow Food’s Carlo Petrini
  12:15: - Who Owns Life? Talk with Vandana Shiva and Renate Künast
  16:30: - Talk with Peter Kubelka: Cooking as the Origin of Culture…
  17:30: - One Way Boogie Woogie / 27 Years Later, James Benning
  18:00: - Berlin Talent Campus Screening - Food For Thought: Origins: Tom Luddy will present all 32 Talent short films on “Hunger, Food and Taste” in three sessions, beginning at 18:00. Today’s programme “Origins” will include eleven short films from seven different countries. In between the screenings, Tom Luddy will introduce the Talent directors and discuss their reflections on “Hunger, Food and Taste”.

  Monday, 13.02.2006
  14:00: - The Case for Taste, lecture and screening of Nossiter’s Mondovino with Carlo Petrini a.o.
  18:00: - Berlin Talent Campus Screening -
  Food For Thought: Delicious Revolution: Today’s Food for Thought session is hosted by US-director Doug Hamilton. His film ALICE WATERS AND THE DELICIOUS REVOLUTION is a documentary about the ideas and ideals of natural food specialist Alice Waters, who has been practicing and sharing with the world her healthy and environmentally conscious principles for nearly thirty years. After the screening, director Doug Hamilton will answer questions.
  20:30: - Mondovino, Jonathan Nossiter

  Tuesday, 14.02.2006
  12:30: - Matthew Barney: No Restraint, Alison Chernick
  18:00: - Berlin Talent Campus Screening -
  18:00: - Berlin Talent Campus Screening - Food For Thought: “Kill or Die” is today’s screening of a new round of shorts from the Campus competition “Films on Hunger, Food and Taste”. Tom Luddy will present ten filmmakers from eight countries and talk about their cinematic stories about the relationship between food and death, about the often hidden fact that for some, eating means killing, and about food, fear and devotion.
  18:45: - Drawing Restraint 9, Matthew Barney

  Wednesday, 15.02.2006
  18:00: - Food For Thought: Lost Supper: A screening of the Berlinale Talent Campus films on “Hunger, Food and Taste” is dedicated to films that deal with hunger, starvation and poverty in the world. Eleven short film productions from eleven countries explore the unjust manner of food distribution in the world and the local effects of this problem. Tom Luddy will introduce all of this year’s Talent filmmakers and talk about their productions.

  Friday, 17.02.2006
  18:15: - 37 Uses for a Dead Sheep, Ben Hopkins

  Saturday, 18.02.2006
  14:30: - Happy as One, Vanessa Jopp

And what will I be doing in my mornings and on Wednesday and Thursday? Lolling about and slacking off? Why I’ll be re-viewing the thirty-two (32!) short films on food, hunger and taste at the Berlinale Talent Campus, chit-chatting with the directors, watching the odd non food-related film.

• 1. IM HOCHBETRIEB. (in confidence) Andreas Krein, Germany: “Remove the music from a film, and you are taking away 51 percent of the experience.”

  2. STRAWBERRY EATING WOMAN. Marlon Vasquez Silva, Colombia: “The reality is the machine of the fiction.”

  3. TO BEEF OR NOT TO BEEF. Kristina Pozenel, Serbia: “We are what we eat!”

  4. CAFE 469. Atefeh Khademolreza, Iran: “Nothing happened two times and never will. We couldn’t live the same summer or winter another time. We shouldn’t let this daily life drown us in itself. We have to feel every single moment of our life.”

  5. LA VIDA DULCE. Rouven Rech, Germany: “Movies go along like trains in the night.”

  6. SLICED FOOD. Lenka Clayton, UK: “A food and human dissection.”

  7. CHILI SAUCE. Cyrus Khambata, India: “Do not ignore how your film smells! Cause, that is how you will know what it is going to taste like!”

  8. WILL THINK FOR FOOD. Parvinder Kaur, India: “Desire, desperation, layers of an onion and taste for variety…life, food, film…it’s all a play of ideas…”

  9. 5×1=5. Kamal Ragani, India: “Hunger and Taste is within you but Food is somewhat exterior.”

  10. BLACK CHERRY. Lucky Kuswandi, Indonesia: “Hunger, entitlement of one own’s body.”

  11. MAMA LAGOS. Kenneth Gyang, Nigeria: “The potency of African food.”

  12. TINY KATERINA. Ivan Golovnev, Russia: “The Nature feeds Culture… The Civilization with appetite eats both…”

  13. THE COST OF DINNER Malam Ibrahim Malam Mahaman Saguiro, Niger: “Life often presents us with situations in which we have little choice, but to struggle, despite all odds for better conditions for both ourselves and those around us. This is a sense of responsibility.”

  14. MEAT BALL. Filippo Filliger, Switzerland: “MEAT BALL: bloody healthy!”

  15. WE ARE WHAT WE LOST. Srdjan Mitrovic, Serbia: “In feature films the director is God; in documentary films God is the director.”

  16. CANTINE AND CO. Nordine Sajot, Italy: “Me, myself and food.”

  17. SNAIL’S DESERT. Gustavo Arteaga, UK: “From chopping-board to dinner table, this film portrays the preparation and consumption of a juicy snail’s dessert.”

  18. THE BIRTH (TAVALLOD). Mostafa Emami, Iran. “Eating but not at any price.”

  19. THIS LITTLE PIGGY. Kate Aidley, UK: “It‘s about life‘s little pleasures.”

  20. KOTZEN. Sarah Paar, Germany: “To act the artist can be a perfect possibility to get over annoyance.”

  21. A LOVE SUPREME. Nilesh Patel, UK: “My short film A LOVE SUPREME is a tribute to my mother, who has Rheumatoid Arthritis in her knees and shoulders, and was inspired by the boxing sequences from RAGING BULL.”

  22. DUNNY. Phillip Van, USA: “The weight of a man.”

  23. HUNGER FOR FOOD / HUNGER FOR GOD. Sergio Basso, Italy: “Yesterday night I prepared dinner for some friends. I put in the oven three kilos of war, five onces of religion and a spoonful of mistrust. Dinner was awful. We all spat up. Maybe it‘s time to change recipe, isn‘t it?”

  24. CHILDREN OF PARADISE. Zahirul Islam, Bangladesh:

  25. HUNGR. Maia Burduli, Georgia:

  26. DIVINE MEALS. Indika Udugampola, Sri Lanka: “Divine meals, offered unto thy hands, now lies, rotten and stale, on temple altar.”

  27. EVIANNAIVE (EXCERPT). Verena Vargas, Germany: “I cook films, I share films and films feed us.”

  28. I LOVE LIVER. Michael Petrowitz, Germany: “Live(r) Up To Life!”

  29. CAKE IN THE FACE. Katarina Hellberg, Sweden: “The pie is the limit!”

  30. THE DAY AFTER TOMATO. Oskar Gullstrand, Sweden: “A tomato’s amazing journey in the search for true love.”

  31. CHICKEN A LA CARTE. Ferdinand de Madura, Philippines: “Art has the power to change the world.”

  32. FLOUR. Yoav Cohen, Israel: “Feelings are my bread, I like to share it with all.”

You’ll be needing these links as well:

• 56th Berlinale International Film Festival (programme search in English)
• Berlinale Talent Campus lineup of film on food, hunger and taste
• Berlinale Talent Campus (in English)
• Berlinale Talent Campus evening programme
• Berlinale Talent Campus lecture and presentation programme
• Slow Food and the Berlinale Talent Campus have teamed up. Here’s the blurb.
• Jonathan Nossiter’s Mondovino
• NYTimes film review of Marcel Pagnol’s classic from 1937, Harvest (Regain)
• Marcel Pagnol filmography on the IMdb
• James Benning interview by Danni Zuvela on the Senses of Cinema website
• James Benning’s filmography on Wikipedia
• Synopsis of Alison Chernick’s Matthew Barney: No Restraint
• Ben Hopkins, 37 Uses of a Dead Sheep
• A list of food-related films, compiled by Rebecca Epstein for Gastronomica. Her dissertation titled, “Crime and Nourishment”, focused on the food and foodways of Hollywood gangster films. Epstein’s list needs a good tweaking and I don’t agree with her about a lot of the titles, but it will serve us just fine for February.
• culiblog reviews Matthew Barney’s Drawing Restraint 9

technorati tags: Berlinale International Film Festival, film, food-related film, cinema, Berlin, Drawing Restraint, Matthew Barney

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