The Goethe-Institut Toronto is launching it's programming year with a collaboration with the DesignTO Festival, presenting the award-winning documentary Taste the Waste in a
free one-night-only community screening and launching the timely conversation of DesignTO's online symposium on "Trash Talk". Read director Valentin Thurn's take on consumption and food security:
How come you chose the topic of food waste?
In 2007, I made a documentary about dumpster divers, people living off food waste. At first it seemed to be an interesting but rather exotic topic. However, researching it I was stunned to realise the gigantic dimension of the amount of waste and its implications for our climate and global food security. I already came into contact with this throw-away madness 30 years ago: On a cycling tour through England with a friend we ran out of money at some stage. I was 18 at the time. We had a return ticket but didn’t want to go back home to Germany earlier than planned. So we decided to manage the remaining nine days without any money. This is how I came to live off fruits and vegetables sorted out by a hypermarket in London – we had been given this tip by a homeless person living in the Docks, where we had set up our tent.
What was the biggest surprise working on the film?
I was active in the environmental movement long before I started to professionally report on environmental topics as a TV journalist. It baffled me that no one, including myself, had a sense of the scale of food waste; almost none of the environment, food or development organisations globally had an idea. Even the Food and Agriculture Organization FAO only had rough estimations. The only countries offering reliable figures were Austria and England. These figures showed that about 50 per cent of all foods are dumped – on their way from the fields to food processing, to wholesalers and retailers, to the fridge to the plate. The only German expert who knew answers to my questions was Joachim von Braun from the Centre for Development Research in Bonn, who is in the film. He is aware of the topic because he is an advisor to the British government.
How did the project develop?
I participated in the “Documentary Campus” for international documentary co-productions, presented the topic there and
carved out its potential. At the presentation at the DokFest Leipzig, several broadcasters approached me. Then the European Broadcast Union invited us to a meeting of the association of broadcasters in Amsterdam and I was able to make further international contacts there. We were able to win over the Dutch and the South Koreans as co-producers. Now the film has been sold in 15 countries, among them France, Spain, Switzerland, Greece, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark.
What is special about showing the cinema version of the film?
The cinema still is the supreme discipline. It is a magic place because it moves people. I have met many people who became really politicized by films like “We Feed the World”. I am deeply impressed by the way films have these effects. I want to reach people emotionally (but not polemically, that is not in my nature). There is a feeling of discontent with the wastage worldwide and I would like to give it a voice. On TV, you get half the time and twice the facts which no one remembers. In cinema on the other hand, everyone remembers the atmosphere and the facts. This topic is special because everyone is somehow affected and can contribute to the solution. Viewers are not hopelessly confronted with an irreversible reality. Instead they can change it, and without losing any quality of life. It is a thought-provoking experience for everyone, including our film team. I have changed my way of grocery shopping, too.
What can the film do?
There have been numerous requests for cooperation, which is quite remarkable. Many organisations from Attac and Greenpeace to Slow Food want to screen the film. Churches also do a lot when it comes to the topic of food justice in the world. They show the film at Thanksgiving or during Lent for example. The German province of North Rhine-Westphalia has announced it would become a model state for avoiding food waste. A lot has been initiated and hopefully there is much more to come. As a filmmaker, that is what I wish for.
How do you translate the (English) title of the film into German?
“Taste the Waste” is a play on words which cannot easily be translated into German. My eleven-year-old son likes to translate it as “Schmeck den Dreck” (taste the rubbish) because it rhymes. However it is not "rubbish" that is thrown away but highly nutritious food. I favour the term “Erkenne die Verschwendung”, realize what you waste. Somewhere in between everyone finds their own interpretation. We chose the English title in order to show that this is a global topic.
Valentin Thurn studied geography, ethnology and political sciences in Aix-en-Provence, Frankfurt and Cologne and trained at the German School of Journalism Munich. He is the co-founder of the International Federation of Environmental Journalists, an investigative author and feature director for radio and television.
image courtesy Thurn Film
