Slow down, it’s a food lover’s weekend

BY WENDY ELLIOTT

Kings County Register

The inaugural Slow Motion Film Fest, produced by Slow Food Nova Scotia, is already a success - and it doesn’t start until Friday.

The new festival, at the Al Whittle Theatre in Wolfville Nov. 6 to 8, has sold out its harvest dinner Saturday. “All 80 seats are sold. We might be able to squeeze 90 people in,” says festival chairman and Wolfville chef Michael Howell.

He expects actor Jason Priestley and his wife, Naomi, to attend the dinner.

The festival will celebrate movies that make food and food-related issues as their main theme. Eleven cinematic screenings will cover a wide variety of food-related topics. Filmmaker Ferdinand Dimdura will be coming from the Philipines to screen his short on world hunger, “Chicken a la Carte.”

According to The Tempest owner, Wolfville is the first town in Canada to hold a weekend food and film festival, but there is a notable one held in Bologna, Italy. “Food is a component of the Berlin Film Festival,” he added. British Columbia held a one-day event last year and Howell has heard of another single-day festival in Phoenix, Arizona.

Another special guest will be Sinclair Philip, owner of the Sooke Harbour House in Sooke, B.C. His was one of the first restaurants to devote itself to local foods back in 1979, he is the Canadian representative to Slow Food in Italy and is the Slow Food Vancouver Island Convivium leader.

Philip will take part in the panel discussion on sustainable seafood Sunday at 10 a.m. Others participating are Jenn Scott from the Ecology Action Centre, biologist Dr. Jeff Hutchings and Philip Docker of Shandaph Oysters in Merigomish. The panel of experts in food security, production and preparation will round table "the economics and ethics of eating seafood in the modern era."

This morning discussion will be followed in the early afternoon by a screening of the feature documentary, “The End of the Line.” The film contemplates a future without seafood, which, Howell suggests, is a distinct possibility if we do not stop, think and act on the way we currently deal with fish.

Among the screenings, which start Friday afternoon, is the provocative children’s film “What’s on Your Plate,” the classic Italian-made “Tree of Wooden Clogs” and the recent hard-hitting documentary “The End of the Line.”

Thirty film passes are sold already, so Howell says his budgetary goal has been reached. All-film passes are $65. Single admissions are $8 adults and $5 kids. “We could sell 50, and then there are rush seats. This is a learning curve.”

Grade 8 and 9 students from Wolfville will watch the first 22-minute long film at 1 p.m., “What’s on Your Plate.”

Slow Food Nova Scotia produced the film “The Edible School Yard,” which looks at Grade 6 students from Arthur Hines School in Summerville growing, threshing and baking wheat into bread. “It’s truly an amazing film,” Howell says. “It cost $25,000 to produce it and we’re going to submit to the Vancouver Film Fest next year.”

Slow Food has distributed copies to all library districts in the province and the provincial government is buying 500 to distribute to schools. “This will be its first screening in a theatre.”

Complementary events include opening and closing ceremonies, an opening gala, school lunch demonstration, wine-tasting (California versus Nova Scotia) and the Wolfville Farmers’ Market.

WEBLINKS

http://www.slowmotionfilmfest.ca/

Slow quest for good food

As part of Slow Motion, Slow Food Nova Scotia and the Wolfville Farmers Market present a special Slow Motion Amazing Market Food Race.

November 7 at the Wolfville Farmers' Market, the “slow” race is on. Pick up your ticket at the info booth and meander through the market following the clues and collecting the necessary ingredients needed from vendors to make a delicious recipe.

Tickets are $8, and that covers the cost of the ingredients you'll be taking home to serve up the mystery recipe (with enough ingredients to prepare two full portions).

When you have found all six ingredients, head upstairs to the market café to the Slow Food Nova Scotia table. Then, you'll be asked to deduce what recipe you'll be making.

To conclude the race, well known chefs Michael Howell, Craig Flinn and a team of culinary students from NSCC Kingstec will serve up samples of the special dish.

Right or wrong, a taste of the finished dish, prepared under the direction of Chef Instructor Peter Dewar, and a recipe will be yours.

Hand in your ticket to be entered into a draw to win two tickets to either A Slow Motion film or to Gastronomical Night Kitchen concert.