#TIFF50-Canceled: The Paula Deen Story

 Canceled: The Paula Deen Story

Directed by Billy Corben

Starring: Paula Deen, Bobby Deen and Jamie Deen

Running Time: 1hr 38min.

TIFF50 

Do you remember Paula Deen the huge Food Network personality from years ago?

Well, she was a legend that had an empire, and it all disappeared in a poof of smoke because she told the truth in a deposition about using the "N" word in her past.  I believe she was caught off guard, and because it was a deposition, she wanted to tell the truth.  But boy, did telling the truth about something she said in the past turn out to bite her.

I used to watch Paula all the time.  She was hilarious, and I gained a bit of knowledge about Southern Cooking from watching her, and I was entertained by all her crazy sayings.

She was the Queen of Butter and all things about the South.  With her 2 sons part of her empire to keep the train going.  But then everything but her family restaurant was gone.  And it seems that the restaurant closed this year as well.

Paula came from humble beginnings and had issues with her first marriage.  After her marriage ended, she became agorophobic.   Needing to feed her sons, she started making sandwiches in her kitchen, and her boys would deliver them.  That grew and eventually turned into a brick-and-mortar full-fledged restaurant.  And then the Food Network came calling, and all kinds of endorsements.

Once again, Paula's willingness to tell her truth took her sponsorships away when she confessed that she had type 2 Diabetes when she was working with a pharmaceutical company.

Sadly, Chef Anthony Bourdain piled on with more criticism about her unhealthy food.  Did you see some of the things he ate, drank, and smoked on his travel shows?

This is where cancel culture really gets it wrong.  Instead of having a conversation or educating the public and Deen, they just dropped her and left her with nothing but a bad reputation.

It's true what they say: when it takes years to build a good reputation, one mistake can ruin it.

I think it was Paula's naivety that took her down because she didn't know what was politically correct to say.

It kind of upsets me when someone who is uneducated and says something wrong and is stripped of everything she worked for, while the U.S. President has attacked, assaulted, and criticized people around the world, and he is allowed to continue doing it.

I learned a lot of things I didn't know by watching the documentary.  I wish she and the family had been able to do this after all the fallout had happened.

I hope this film redeems her reputation and shows that she has learned from her mistakes and wants to move forward.   She loves people, and it would be great to see her have a new outlet to share her love of food and love.

I could not find a release date, but I really hope that this one gets picked up by a streamer soon.  I really felt for her and wish her success in her future.

This was the last film I saw at TIFF50,
and it was a memorable one for me.