The Coolidge Corner Theatre

King Corn
With Q&A featuring filmmaker Ian Cheney
One acre of corn tells the story of the crop reigning over the American countryside—and the American diet. 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 skeptical neighbors, genetically-modified seeds, nitrogen fertilizers, 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. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Aaron Woolf and featuring an original soundtrack by The Wowz. KING CORN is an entertaining and provocative new look at the American foodscape.

dirs. Aaron Woolf, Ian Cheney, Curt Ellis, 1h32m

Ticket Price: $9.75/$6.75 members

Reception featuring organic wine; local, sustainable popcorn from Harvey’s farm; Adina juice, local cheese; and crudités platters with local produce. Remarks by David Bove, Vineyard Brands. Reception is open to KING CORN and MONDOVINO ticket holders.

Mondovino
For thousands of years, wine has been a symbol of Western civilization. But, never has the fight for its soul been as desperate and defining as it is today. Never has so much pride—and money—been at stake. And, never have the battle lines been so clearly drawn between old world and new, between simple peasants and billionaires, and between the local and artisanal styles of wine production and the multinational and mass-produced ones. With wine sold at local supermarkets throughout the world, one can certainly argue that a greater number of consumers have a greater taste for wine than ever before. What that wines tastes like is another matter….

The ultimate film about wine and wine culture, MONDOVINO was filmed by award-winning director and sometime sommelier Jonathan Nossiter in five languages over a three-year period. Juxtaposing mom-and-pop wine growers with conglomerates, Nossiter intertwines multiple family dramas–some of which play like soap operas–and uncovers a complex tapestry of conflicts, conspiracies, and alliances that all stem from the production, distribution, and consumption of one of the oldest and most respected luxuries remaining.

MONDOVINO gives voice to those who create, critique, and do commerce in wine, offering up a surprisingly prismatic, varied, and sometimes controversial glimpse into something everyone enjoys but few people know much about.

dir. Jonathan Nossiter, 2h15m

Ticket Price: $6.75 All

Asparagus! A Stalk-umentary
With Q&A featuring filmmaker(bios)
This is the story of what happens when an obscure U.S. War on Drugs policy threatens to destroy the Asparagus Capital of the World. After 30 years of growing “Green Gold,” crowning a Mrs. Asparagus Queen and writing Super Stalk comic book heroes, the people of Oceana County Michigan are thrown smack-dab into the middle of the global economy. Watch as Ocean’s farmers take their fight from Senate Trade Hearings to marketing think-tanks, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to the mountains of Peru. See how one rural American community is scrambling to keep its proud identity and source of survival against impossible odds. Directed and produced Kirsten Kelly and Anne de Mare.

dirs. Anne de Mare, Kristen Kelly, 53m

Ticket Price: $6.75 All