Complicated Life, Simple Food

With a plot (pun intended) reminiscent of Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, "Eating Alabama" chronicles a young couple's return home to Alabama where they set out to eat the way their grandparents did—locally and seasonally. 

The documentary will have its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, March 9-14.

Tuscaloosa's Andrew Grace and his wife, Rashmi—both of whom were raised in suburbia—spent a challenging year that produced moments of comedy and episodes of adventure, but also some deep thoughts about the rapid pace of change and what may have been irrevocably lost in the rush to modernity.

 Watch the trailer . . . this looks good.

Eating Alabama Trailer from Moon Winx Films on Vimeo.

I have a daughter majoring in horticulture, and we grow a lot of our own food (though our chickens are never in danger of human consumption). I can relate to Andrew and Rashmi's experience on a much smaller scale.

Andrew says, "I had an assumption when I started this project that what had been disconnected was my relationship with farmers." He assumed that by tracing food back to its source, they would re-establish their connection to place, people and the seasons.

"We discovered that it wasn't very easy."

He lost nine pounds on "an unintentional Atkins diet."  He and his wife discovered the upside of lengthy meal preparation: they spent more time together than ever, even if there was no supper until 9 p.m.

Both Rashmi and Andrew are just a few generations separated from the old ways. Grace said his grandfather grew up on a north Alabama farm but left at 15, earned an engineering degree and helped design the booster rockets for the space shuttle.

Through his grandfather's memories, Grace had a sense of the kind of close-knit community that once predominated, one marked by self-reliance, but also a system of mutual interdependence. These days, even in rural Alabama, farm life is very different. Most food production is outsourced to other states or other countries.

"I had a nostalgic and romantic idea of farm life, but today it is a very mechanized, industrialized workplace," Grace said.

The documentary evolved into a tale of how much our economy and lifestyle has changed and how difficult it is to make a living farming. I think we should be pondering those things.

Andrew Grace teaches filmmaking at the University of Alabama and serves as the director of an interdisciplinary program called Documenting Justice. Rashmi Grace is now director of the Druid City Garden Project, a community-based nonprofit in Tuscaloosa that works to increase access to fresh, locally grown produce.

Their film will be seen on Alabama Public Television this fall, and eventually nationwide on PBS. I will be watching for it, because the trailer beautifully illustrates people coming together in Alabama fashion.

Makes me proud.

"Eating Alabama" on Facebook










Love from Delta.