Film review

Title: Food for Thought: Hunger in America-What is Hunger in America?

Director: Dolce Wang/Shelby Barnes

Producer/Public Information: Through the Faces of Hunger in the United States Film Contest 2009.

Year: 2009

Length: 11 minutes

Format: Documentary

Language: English
Pub Info:
Subtitles: none

Country: America

Audio/Visual Quality: Excellent

Film Type: short video

Subject: Hunger in America

Theme or topic: What is Hunger? In a country as affluent as American why is there hunger here? Why is hunger so invisible?

Time and Place: Takes place in 2009 in L.A. –Interviews of people on Skid Row, the streets, missions, foodbanks-who are giving and getting help.

Summary: Dolce Wang is a young student 24 years old who’s entered a contest for the Faces of America. She goes in search of what is hunger. She gives statistics for the amount of people going hungry and the amount of waste there is in America. She seeks to define hunger and to find it amongst people in L.A. She goes to the streets; to the local missions and the foodbanks to see what is going on and to talk to people. She finally stops her search and tells us her family’s experience with hunger and how the community has helped her and her family. She calls her former teacher to thank her for all the help she received while her and her family were experiencing food insecurity in their family. Her brother shares his feelings and experiences during the struggle he was having in high school. He admits he would not have made it to college without the help he received.

Review: This is an eye opening video, full of personal information about people’s view of hunger from personal standpoints. We see brought to light the issue of why we are not willing to admit that we do face hunger in our lives when we are in need. We find answers and hear the truth about how our feelings and pride get in the way of admitting that we need food and how we can commit and work together to end the issue.