Wednesday 29 April 2015

Foodies at Hot Docs

I was very interested in checking out the Documentary FOODIES at the Hot Docs Film Festival this week in Toronto since I also have a blog called Starving Foodie and have a lot of food blogger friends.  It wasn't the film that I expected though.

It's a documentary made by a Swedish production company and 3 directors,  Thomas Jackson, Charlotte Landellus and Henrik Stockare who became interested in exploring the world of foodies after speaking with some high profile chefs who follow where these global foodies go and what they say about the food.  It focuses on 5 different Foodies, an outspoken New Yorker, Steve Plotnicki, who used to work in the music business.  A demanding Brit Andy Hayler, who thinks his opinions are extremely important.  A younger Asian male  and the female Katie Keiko, who should totally get together and go to these restaurants together.  And a European fashion model Aiste Miseviciutewho loves to travel and explore different restaurants and take photos of her travels and meet up with friends along the way.

It was filled with a lot of "food porn" though and a lot of "what is that" kind of food.

They all say that they pay for their own meals and write whatever they want on their blogs.  They seem to have an endless supply of cash to travel the world and eat at all of the Michelin Star restaurants.  One is funded by his parents,  the young Asian girl saves her money to travel.  The fashion model also pays her own way.  The 2 older gentleman seem to have amassed their fortunes and now spend it travelling anywhere they want to.   One of the gentlemen has been to all of the Michelin star restaurants in the current years guide and is creating his own guide from an algorithm  he created based on the number of times the foodies eat at the restaurants.

Personally I couldn't relate to these Foodies.  They are nothing like the group of food bloggers that I meet up with at local media events and festivals in the city.  Maybe that's because we are Canadian and we are all very polite and grateful for a good meal.  We don't have deep pockets although a few are able to travel they aren't hitting up all of the Michelin star restaurants.  I only know one foodie who works in the medical profession who can afford to go to some of these restaurants.

Other than the model who seemed very personable and gracious I found a lot of the other ones kind of obnoxious and a bit rude.  The 2 younger Asian foodies seemed to be very withdrawn even.

My foodie friends are all very social and friendly so it was a bit odd for me to watch some of them.

What I enjoyed about the film was seeing all the different restaurants around the world.  Places I had never heard of in a lot of remote locations even.

It seems to be very popular at Hot Docs and I know that there are a whole lot of foodies in Toronto so I bet they were interested in seeing this film.

The film didn't have the heart that the other film I saw FOR GRACE  did but if you are into looking into the world of a few global food travellers then this is the film you should check out.

The New York man Steve Plotnicki was in attendance with the director for the Q&A after the film.  When asked where he had lunch he said Dynasty in Yorkville.  The audience just hummed...  not exactly where everyone expected him to go but he said it was his friend that chose the restaurant.

One thing of note.   Most of the scenes were shot of the foodies dining alone because the restaurants wouldn't let them film the other diners so it seemed a bit weird.  They said that they don't normally dine alone.


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