I recently sent out this press release...
Illinois Stewardship Alliance and Liberty Brew & View are sponsoring a free showing of the new documentary King Corn, January 15, 7:00pm, at City Nights, 3149 S. Dirksen Parkway, Springfield, IL.
King Corn is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation.
“In King Corn, two friends start out with an idyllic dream of spending a summer farming, and end up immersed in a food system they never expected,” said Bridget Holcomb of Illinois Stewardship Alliance. “This movie is a ride through everything that happens before food hits a supermarket shelf.”
In King Corn, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the east coast, move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America’s most-productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat—and how we farm.
City Nights is a renovated one screen movie theater connected to Capital City Bar & Grill in the Capital City Shopping Center. Food and beverages are available during the film. A social hour begins at 6:30pm and the movie will begin at 7:00pm.
After the movie there will be a discussion on local foods and the politics of eating. The discussion will feature area farmers growing local and organic products, and local food advocates working to promote local food systems and sound public policy. Panel members include:
Paul Gebhart, an organic farmer from Edinburg who left conventional agriculture to grow diversified, locally sold products.
Bridget Holcomb, a lobbyist with Illinois Stewardship Alliance working on a state and federal level to promote local food systems and conservation.
Floyd Johnson is an organic farmer from Raymond and part of a cooperative that directly connects Illinois organic farmers with markets in the state.
Lindsay Record is a diversified farmer and works for Illinois Stewardship Alliance to promote a local food system in the Springfield area.
“I’m excited about doing the first public showing of King Corn in central Illinois”, said Will Reynolds, one of the event’s organizers. “It’s important that we have this discussion in the heart of corn country.”
More information about King Corn, including a press kit, can be found at: http://www.kingcorn.net/
Illinois Stewardship Alliance is a membership organization that works to promote local, sustainable food systems.
Liberty Brew & View shows a politically themed movie followed by a speaker on the third Tuesday of each month. Previous movies include Who Killed the Electric Car? which was followed by remarks from State Representative Mike Boland. The yet to be announced February film will focus on civil rights in conjunction with black history month.