Behold, our 8th Festival program with 13 film programs and five events! The new and exclusive FFFF Virtual Lounge Facebook group will let you compare notes with fellow festival viewers. Come to the Festival. Enjoy.
Friday, January 22, 2021
Cinematic Art Exhibition 12pm
R Gallery, 2027 Broadway, Boulder
Rob Lanz of R Gallery recruited Colorado artists to create art inspired by the following Festival films: A Taste of Sky, First Cow, Gather, Food Fighter, and Sacred Cow. Take in the gallery show from January 21 to February 12, one week before and after the Festival. There will also be an online exhibition. Sneak peak the Festival through the prism of art by going to R Gallery prior to the Festival.
Thursday, January 28, 2021
Opening Night: Opera from the Court of the Sun King
Grandiose spectacles, such as those devised by Francois Vatel, featured opera by Jean-Baptiste Lully. In this performance, Opera on Tap Colorado brings the music that thrilled courtiers and royalty at Versailles and Chantilly during the king’s reign to life to to you. Set the mood for Vatel (see below) by taking in this concert.
Festival Premiere: Vatel 7:30pm
Kick off the Festival film offerings with Vatel. This classic drama brings us to the France of the fabled Sun King, Louis XIV in 1671 and a talented chef, Francois Vatel, caught in royal intrigue and romance during a royal visit. Boulder Brasserie in Boulder and other French restaurants will offer pre-ordered French cuisine dinners for viewers to eat while watching the concert or film. More information to come on the dinners.
Speaker: Ken Albala
Friday, January 29, 2021
Festival premiere: Meat the Future 7:30pm
The next agricultural revolution is coming to your plate. Meat made from cells, without animal slaughter, will change how we think about food. In this timely character-driven documentary, follow the journey of Dr. Uma Valeti, a Mayo Clinic-trained cardiologist and co-founder and CEO of Memphis Meats, which is at the forefront of a new revolutionary industry.
Speakers: Liz Marshall, David Kay, Caroline Bushnell
Saturday, January 30, 2021
Note: On this day, we have created lots of programming to give you more exciting choices on what you would like to attend. This has caused some programs to overlap.
Puppet-making for Everyone 10am
Master puppet-maker Cory Gilstrap will teach Puppet-making for Everyone, a free class for kids ages 4 and up. Parents are welcome to participate and make their own sock puppets or help their kids. This event will also include two short films, Michael Jackson – Thriller (Sock Puppet Parody) and Sock Puppet Film Noir.
Speaker: Cory Gilstrap
Note: No charge but registration is required.
Festival Premiere: The Colorado Plate 11am
The Colorado Plate: Inside Our Local Food Culture is a film program that consists of four short documentaries, each of which focuses on a Colorado food artisan who exemplifies their craft. The Denver Post commissioned the series to open a window onto the growing landscape and identities of Colorado food culture.
This program consists of Farmer Eric Skokan, Episode 1; Cheesemaker Jackie Chang, Episode 2; Butcher Kaate Kavanaugh, Episode 3; Chef Duncan Holmes, Episode 4.
Speakers: Amy Brothers, Jackie Chan, Linnea Covington, Kate Kavanaugh, Eric Skokan
Festival Premiere: A Six Dollar Cup of Coffee 1:45pm
An indigenous Tzeltal-Maya family that grows coffee in Chiapas, Mexico tries to sell its product abroad as a finished product to protect their identity, land, and right to live under better conditions but struggles. After the showing, there will be a pre-recorded discussion.
Speakers: TBD
Festival Premiere: Gather 4pm
Gather documents a growing movement among Native Americans to reclaim their spiritual and cultural identities by obtaining sovereignty over their ancestral food systems.
Speaker: Clint Carroll and speaker TBD
Festival Premiere: First Cow 7pm
In this critically acclaimed drama set in the 1820s, a skilled cook travels west to seek his fortune. He finds true connection with a Chinese immigrant fortune-seeker. The two collaborate on a successful but risky food business. Big Red F Group restaurants will offer pre-ordered dinners for viewers to eat while watching the film. More information to come on the restaurants and dinners.
Speakers: Ken Albala, Orion Lee
Sunday, January 31, 2021
Note: On this day, we have created lots of programming to give you more exciting choices on what you would like to attend. This has caused some programs to overlap.
Festival Premiere: Connections and Transformation 10:30am
In this collection of short films submitted to the Festival, two student filmmakers from Colorado take the spotlight. Runner-up Omri Dayan and first-place winner Leilani Osmundson have won the top prizes for the 2020 Colorado Student Film Contest from the Flatirons Food Film Festival. Each of the seven shorts selected for this program, including the student films, explores complex food matters of the heart and mind where the film setting becomes as much of a character as the film subjects.
This program consists of Food of Love: Tamale Man; Galveston Eats: Island Olives; The Last Press; As a Fish out of Water; Rusty’s Story; Kindness Leads to Kindness; The Farm.
Speaker: Omri Dayan, Leilani Osmundson
Metro Denver Food Waste Organizations 11:45am
In Boulder and Denver, there are several organizations dedicated to reclaiming food and alleviating this situation. Over Zoom, meet some of those organizations, which include UpRoot Colorado, which reduces surplus agriculture in Colorado through gleaning, the Boulder Food Project, which is part of the Boulder Valley School District, and the City and County of Denver’s Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency.
Speakers: Hayden Dansky, David Laskarzewski, Stephen Menyhart, Susan Renaud
Note: No charge but registration is required. Your confirmation and a follow-up email will include the Zoom link.
Festival Premiere: Food Fighter 1pm
Ronni Kahn, founder of OzHarvest, crusades against the global food waste scandal, holding big business and the government to account in Australia. In addition to Ronni Kahn, the live discussion and Q&A will include speakers from food waste organizations in Japan, Honolulu, and Boulder.
Speakers: Hayden Dansky, Ronni Kahn, Charles E. McJilton
Festival Premiere: Sacred Cow 3:30pm
Can a healthy, sustainable, and conscientious food system exist without animals? Sacred Cow: The Case for Better Meat probes the fundamental moral, environmental, and nutritional quandaries we face in raising and eating animals. Focusing our lens on the largest and perhaps most maligned of farmed animals, the cow, it illustrates how eliminating animals from our food system could cause more harm than good to our environment and our bodies.
Speakers: Alan Lewis, Diana Rogers, Judith D. Schwartz
Festival Premiere: Funke
Evan Funke was one of the hottest young chefs in Los Angeles when he inexplicably walked away from his critically-acclaimed and wildly popular restaurant, Bucato, leaving behind a wake of financial and personal upheaval. Watch a talented chef stage his culinary comeback by mastering the dying art of handmade pasta. Frasca Food and Wine and Pastificio Boulder will offer pre-ordered meal kits to cook, and then eat while watching the film.
Speakers: To be determined
Monday, February 1, 2021
Festival Premiere: Keepers of Black American Food Culture
Keepers of Black American Food Culture is a collection of short films from The Southern Foodways Alliance (SFA) that celebrates Black American food culture. The selected films features stories that celebrate the great feats and flavors of seven Black American culinary personalities.
This program consists of Table of Ideas; Soul of the Kitchen; Food Work; Full Circle: The Ballad of Rodney and Roscoe; Black American Cuisine: Mashama Bailey Takes the Bus Station; Dora Charles Puts Her Foot In It; Kevin Young: Ode to Gumbo.
Speakers: Adrian Miller, Joe York
Local Restaurants and the Pandemic
As with the rest of the country, the roller coaster dips of the Colorado response to combating COVID-19 have hit independent restaurants particularly hard. Our Boulder and Denver restaurant industry speakers will talk about pivots that Colorado restaurants have taken to survive, what we can do to save our restaurants on the local and national levels, and the prognosis for the future.
Speakers: Caroline Glover, Dana Query, Jimmy Seidel, Bobby Stuckey
Tuesday, February 2, 2021
Festival Premiere: A Taste of the Sky
Follow the journey of two students from Restaurant Gustu, the revolutionary cooking school and fine-dining restaurant, founded by Noma’s Claus Meyer in La Paz, Bolivia. In the Bolivian capital of La Paz, a city that sits 13,000 feet above sea level, an ambitious and unlikely culinary project has connected three people from vastly different backgrounds and is forever changing their lives.
Speaker: Jensen Cummings, Michael Lei
Wednesday, February 3, 2021
Food Geeks Trivia Night! Home Edition
In the Flatirons Food Film Festival’s first-ever trivia game night, we will test viewers’ knowledge of food, film, and sometimes both. Bring your A-team of foodies, cooks (home and otherwise), film buffs, and those who dare to test their mastery of this special type of trivia. Will the game challenge you, or will you destroy it? We can’t wait to find out.
Speaker: Kuvy Ax
Thursday, February 4, 2021
A free night to catch up on Festival films and events!
Friday, February 5, 2021
Festival Premiere (Colorado Exclusive): Setting the Bar
Top craft chocolate makers journey to the Peruvian Amazon jungle to meet cacao farmers, improve the sustainability of cacao growing, search for unknown superior wild cacao varietals to enhance their chocolate, and demonstrate their chocolate-making. After the showing, food journalist John Lehndorff will talk about how to taste craft chocolate before the discussion and Q&A. Mexican restaurants will offer pre-ordered dinners with dishes made with mole sauce for viewers to eat while watching the film. More information to come on the restaurants and dinners.
Also, consider getting a Festival craft chocolate pack, which will feature chocolate bars from chocolate makers in the movie, to enjoy after your mole dinner and during the tasting. More information to come about the Festival chocolate packs.
Speakers: Greg D’Alesandre, Steve Bergin, Nate Hodge, John Lehndorff