You are a Lab Rat !
Documentary Movies about Food and Your Health
Change the world by changing what you eat. What food you buy with your money will determine the fate of this planet.
Below I have listed some movies that can dramatically change the quality of your life and also help the earth move into a better direction.
Since 1990, genetically modified foods have been sneaking their way into your stomach. Plants and animals genes are modified by using virus and bacteria to host the gene entry and changes to the cells and reproduction. Sound safe to you?
As we people, we human-sized lab rats, eat up these altered food commodities unknowingly, we are suffering terrible mysterious ailments in unprecedented numbers: Diabetes, Obesity, Brain Tumors, Blood Sugar and Insulin problems, Endometriosis, Depression, Dementia, Anxiety, Cancer, and so much more, it does not end.
Nuking your brain with bluetooth wifi probably is not helping you much either. There are a lot of modern technologies, that although they may make our activities more convenient, they are not serving your overall good health.
When I was a kid, it was not like this. Life was different. People did not en masse need anti-depressants, other drugs, and major surgeries.
Why is this happening to us now?
It is nothing other than money and greed and runaway capitalism: big business people bribe politicians by funding their campaigns, politicians appoint people and make law choices in favor of big business, suppressing the dangers and risks of products, food businesses poison us personally, reaping as much profit as possible, while the insurance and health industries further rape us when we are sick from the foods and technology.
Go to the source and change it! Change what you buy to eat.
Some other leading countries refuse to buy or eat certain U.S. food because the concern is that serious, yet our government does everything in their power to protect the businesses and keep its citizens (you) in the dark about what you are eating.
All the while you are complacent, our genetically modified food is contaminating the natural food sources in all the world, either carried by the wind, water, or tossed by the companies themselves into others’ crops!
It is a terrible evil cycle and YOU are the rat in the maze my friends. WE, the People with our belly aches, head aches, and financial debts just don’t know what is happening to us. It is time for change!
What are YOU going to do about it? Just run around in your little box maze testing their contaminated foods and drugs? Keep giving this poison to your babies because it is cheap so they can grow up to be schizophrenic, psychotic, or autistic? Or are you going to make a change?
Start by watching free on Hulu.com: The Future of Food (2004) by Deborah Koons. This will give you a basic understanding of some of what is happening.
A change to Organic, gluten-free, un-processed, unaltered, local foods will have immediate positive effects for you: clear thinking, stable moods, and a significant drop in physical pain.
Plus, organic natural foods taste so much better!
With scientists genetically altering life forms to be seedless and infertile (plants, animals, and humans), life will simply eventually come to an end, for there will be no more air or water cycles either because they rely on the plants and animals. We are all connected.
When possible, AVOID herbicides, pesticides, highly processed, hormone injected, and genetically altered foods.
Educate yourself today about what is happening to your food. Go to Wikipedia and learn what you are eating: rBST, rGST, BGH, insulin, pesticides, herbicides, agent orange, genetically modified foods, dioxin…
As a planet, we will either turn into a barren dry Mars or remain the earthly lush Garden of Eden with which we have been blessed. Just changing who you give your money to is an enormous first step.
Buy Organic and local foods, when possible! It will make you feel better physically, emotionally, and spiritually, while also contributing to slow down the progress of the greed monsters who are killing this planet by disrupting the natural flow.
If you cannot look at your food and know exactly from where it came or how it was made, or you have no idea what are the ingredients in the food because they look like a foreign biotech language, you should be concerned. The more processing, packaging, and mystery to your food, the more you can figure it is bad for you. The words “natural” and “healthy” are just sales pitches, not honest legally binding contracts with you.
Look for these Organic labels:
| Organic Certification |
|---|
 United States |
 Japan |
 Australia |
 Germany |
 France |
When you see those Organic labels, it is not an absolute guarantee of purity, but you will have better odds of meeting these requirements:
- avoidance of most synthetic chemical inputs (e.g. fertilizer, pesticides, antibiotics, food additives, etc), genetically modified organisms, irradiation, and the use of sewage sludge;
- use of farmland that has been free from synthetic chemicals for a number of years (often, three or more);
- keeping detailed written production and sales records (audit trail);
- maintaining strict physical separation of organic products from non-certified products;
- undergoing periodic on-site inspections.
As long as we are mass producing food and having to package it, there will always be health risks. Minimizing the contaminations is the best we can do at this stage. If you have any land or patches of sunlight, grow your own food from organic dirt and seeds!
Please watch these movies now and make a change! Your body and your children depend on it. There is no time to wait.
Food Inc. (2008) by Robert Kenner
Free on Hulu.com:
The Future of Food (2004) by Deborah Koons
Super Size Me (2004) by Morgan Spurlock
Writers & Filmmakers Note: These are top notch successful food and health related documentaries that any writers or filmmakers considering to make a movie about similar topics must watch! Pay attention to how their stories unfold and how, even though it is a documentary about food, you become emotionally attached to the characters and have involvement with these movies. Whether you are writing fiction or non-fiction, there is much to be learned from these movies.
These are the kinds of movies that change your life and change the world; they are the most important, noble, and courageous types of filmmaking a person can do, to challenge big businesses for the betterment of humanity and for the earth.
Please add other movies to the comments section that you feel are life changers.
The Reflecting Skin Movie Review
by Dirtbag
Tonight’s film, The Reflecting Skin (1990) starring Viggo Mortensen, Lindsay Duncan, and Jeremy Cooper, written and directed by Philip Ridley, comes from the Goodwill second-hand store in Los Angeles where Hollywood and Sunset Boulevards split. They had a surprisingly good selection of forgotten VHS tapes, all at $.99 each. Reflecting Skin had a 1956 Cadillac Fleetwood on the back of the box, so I had to buy it.
One of the things I look forward to most about watching movies on VHS are the old previews that often lead me to other movies I would have never otherwise found or wanted to see. The film previews on Reflecting Skin were for The Miracle and Tatie Danielle, which I am going to track down for a later review.
Of the three VHS movies I purchased, Reflecting is the darkest. It is a story of a young boy in the 50′s growing up too fast in a small Idaho town, all the while his friends are being murdered.
The opening scene is a little dark and it only continues to get darker throughout the movie. Rodger Ebert compared it to a David Lynch film but I really saw no relation.
The story follows a few months with a nearly nine-year-old boy named Seth. His home life seems fairly normal but it’s his daily life that has him keeping a cross under his pillow at night. When you are a young child the smallest things can seem like the biggest to you and adults never relate to what you are experiencing.
With a Black Cadillac full of hooligans roaming the town and his older brother dating a vampire, young Seth has quite a bit on his plate. Seems waterboarding was taking place in rural Idaho long before Guantanamo, and that was just for keeping the oil lamp on too late!
After an exploding frog incident involving his friends and the girl next door, he is sent to Dolphin’s house to apologise where he discovers she’s a vampire. The boys discuss how to handle this vampire next door they know they need the help of an angel, but what’s an angel? One boy believes an angel is a baby with wings, the other believes it is a person who doesn’t blink, and Seth has no idea. They all agree when you make your mom cry, an angel dies.
With Seth’s friends being murdered one by one and eye witnessing a suicide via drinking and bathing in gasoline, he must still find a way to save his brother before the girl next door sucks the last bit of life from him. With his best friend reincarnated as an angel fetus at his side, he manages a way to avoid the Cadillac of Death and devises a plan to keep his brother’s youth, but can he keep it all together at only eight years old?
Reflecting Skin doesn’t have much nudity in it; you see Viggo’s hairy chest and his man butt. The only female nudity is a picture of a nude pin-up girl Cameron keeps in his wallet. It did have that Black Cadillac in a few scenes so that was worth the $.99 alone.
I love traveling and finding new film treasures in thrift stores throughout the States. Only the older films are on VHS so you can never go too wrong, even if only the previews are what’s good about it.
Till next time,
The VHS Vagabond,
DIRTBAG
Oscar’s Best Screenplay Awards
Guest Post By Molly Duke
On Sunday, March 10, 2010, The 82nd Academy Awards will broadcast live from Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre, hosted by Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. The nominations will be announced on February 2, 2010, so we don’t yet officially know which talented screenwriters are in the running for this year’s most prestigious awards in writing for the silver screen. We also don’t know who will emerge as this year’s Oscar losers. What we do know are which wordsmiths have won the coveted golden statue for the past 81 years.
Many awesomely talented screenwriters have walked away with an Oscar, leaving behind lessons that the rest of us movie lovers and fledgling screenwriters can learn by asking the question, What does it take to write the best screenplay?
Before the 2010 Oscar buzz begins, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at eight decades of Oscar’s best screenplays. That’s a lot of film titles to get through in one post, so I’ll highlight one best screenplay from each decade, and I’ll choose screenplays that not only won the Oscar, but also led to timeless and legendary films.
…and the Award for Best Screenplay Went To…
The 1920s – 1930s
In 1939, Gone with the Wind screenwriter Sidney Howard was posthumously (he was killed by a tractor – no joke) awarded the Oscar for best screenplay. The script for Gone with the Wind was based on the novel by the same name, and while the film deviates heavily from the book, both were huge successes. In other words, lots of people made lots of money. Sidney Howard was also a Pulitzer Prize winner and a playwright by trade.
The 1940s
Citizen Kane is one of the earliest and best-known films to engage movie-goers’ curiosity by employing the brain twister. As the rich and famous Charles Foster Kane dies, he utters one last word: “Rosebud.” This film tells the story of a reporter who embarks on a quest to find out what “Rosebud” meant to Kane. The ending is unforgettable (watch it for yourself and find out why). It’s no wonder this film won best screenplay in 1941. Welles co-wrote the script with Herman J. Mankiewicz.
The 1950s
There’s a famous scene right on the cover of the DVD. If you ever see a clip showing a man and woman rolling around in a suggestive way on the shore, being lapped by the waves (and each other), you’re either seeing a scene, a parody or a rip-off from the movie From Here to Eternity. Even if you’ve never heard of this movie, you’ll probably recognize that one snippet of the film. Daniel Taradash took home the Oscar for best screenplay in 1953.
The 1960s
Most young people will be amazed that just over forty years ago, a movie depicting an interracial marriage caused such a stir. But interracial marriage actually used to be illegal in the United States. In fact, it was still illegal in 17 (southern) states until the same year this film came out, just as the civil rights movement was drawing to a close in those parts. Screenwriter William Rose won the golden statue for Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? in 1967.
The 1970s
Usually, when a screenplay is adapted from a novel, the filmmakers destroy the integrity of the original story but Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman didn’t do that to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Then again, how can you go wrong when you’ve got Jack Nicholson in the leading role? This one took home the Academy Award for best screenplay adapted from other material in 1975. Read the book, watch the movie, and question your sanity!
The 1980s
Being an 80s movies buff, you’ll have to excuse me for getting a little carried away in this decade.
Some excellent 80s movies that were awarded the statuette for best screenplay are Witness, Rain Man, and Dead Poets Society.
Noteworthy screenplays that were nominated for best screenplay in the 80s but didn’t take home the gold are Fame, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, WarGames, Back to the Future, and When Harry Met Sally.
The cream of the crop for the 1980s is Moonstruck. It’s refreshing to see the Academy award a screenplay that’s somewhat lighthearted. Historically, comedies and science fiction or fantasy films don’t get a whole lot of love from Oscar, but in 1987, John Patrick Shanley proved it could be done with his quirky love story Moonstruck.
The 1990s
Don’t tell the 80s I said this, but I think the 90s produced even better films than the 80s. Actually, let me qualify that statement: The Academy made even better choices for best screenplay in the 90s. They did such a good job, in fact, that we have a tie for best of the best screenplays.
Pulp Fiction was immediately heralded as a cult classic, both for its screenplay by Quentin Tarantino and for the innovative way that it was directed and produced. This movie boasted a killer cast and some original stories woven together in a way that was both entertaining and at the time, somewhat shocking. Tarantino took home the golden statue in 1994.
Another killer film from the 90s that simply must be mentioned is The Usual Suspects, a film that takes you on a wild ride that makes you question, think, guess, and then guess again. Christopher McQuarrie deservedly got the gold for best screenplay in 1995.
The 2000s
The only thing you need to know about best screenplays of the past decade is that Diablo Cody won for Juno. And hopefully you all know how Diablo Cody got discovered? No, she didn’t get discovered as a stripper (although she did a stint as a stripper for a year – for fun!). Diablo Cody started out as a blogger. That’s right, she was once just like us. Her story of a quirky, knocked-up teen building a relationship with adoptive parents will pull your heartstrings, but not in that cheesy, fake way that after-school specials do. Cody won best screenplay in 2007.
Molly Duke is a throwback to legwarmers and boom boxes. She blogs about the 80s and spends a lot of time ogling totally vintage goodies on eBay while waxing nostalgic about pop culture and the days when MTV Music Television actually played music.
2 Best Holiday Movie Scripts of All Time
by Jaden
If you are looking to cash in on writing a holiday movie, watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and A Christmas Story.
Writers and filmmakers have endeavored through the decades to entertain us during the holidays, but none have touched our hearts like the movies that came from these two simple and yet masterful scripts.
Watch closely how the stories unfold and what key story points change the main characters. Using these story arches, story-telling styles, and character developments as guides, you can change the holiday to meet your cultural and personal holiday preferences to write a timeless script with characters to which we can all relate.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966)
This is my all time favorite Christmas movie.
Any good script will have character development wherein the character starts off with some less than desirable personality traits and through the course of some life lessons (story plot points, obstacles, and conflicts), the character changes and becomes a better individual. Our greedy green monster shall learn something from a darling little girl.
Animated characters with their larger-than-life facial expressions and body language are able to deliver emotional cues in a profound way that is relatable by all race, gender, and ages.
The original story was written by Dr. Seuss and further worked by Irv Spector and Bob Ogle; directed by Chuck Jones and co-directed by Ben Washam.
A Christmas Story (1983)
Overplayed in the U.S. and running incessantly through the holidays, most Americans have seen A Christmas Story countless times. Next time you watch it, contemplate why it is such an excellent family holiday movie script?
With moments everyone will forever remember, Peter Billingsley (as child actor playing Ralphie) gives a perfect performance and Jean Shepherd (as the voice of adult Ralphie and Narrator) tattoos the script words to the back of our brains.
Famous movie quotes:
[Ralphie is visiting Santa at the department store, only he can't remember what he wanted]
Santa Claus: How about a nice football?
Ralphie as Adult: [narrating] Football? Football? What’s a football? With unconscious will my voice squeaked out ‘football’.
Santa Claus: Okay, get him out of here.
Ralphie as Adult: [narrating] A football? Oh no, what was I doing? Wake up, Stupid! Wake up!
Ralphie: [Ralphie is shoved down the slide, but he stops himself and climbs back up] No! No! I want an Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle!
Santa Claus: You’ll shoot your eye out, kid.
Later in the movie…
Ralphie as Adult: [narrating, after BB gun shot bounces off target and hits his face] Oh my god, I shot my eye out!
A Christmas Story is written by Jean Shepherd (novel “In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash”) with further writing on the screenplay by Leigh Brown and director Bob Clark.
Forbidden Zone the Movie
by Jaden
“How have I not seen this movie? How have I never even heard of it? It’s amazing!” This is what I said to my friend as the opening credits of Forbidden Zone (1982) began to roll over the psychedelic cartoon images inspired by the dark ages of the early 1900s.
My friend said, “Not everyone is into movies like this.”
We two, we were mind blown.
It was late at night and I was trying to go home to go to sleep, but I couldn’t tear myself away from the strange happenings unfolding on the screen.
Forbidden Zone (1982) is written and directed by Richard Elfman (original leader of the band Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo and brother to composer Danny Elfman).
Forbidden Zone is a musical animated live action dream drama that resembles a genetic altering of Alice in Wonderland, The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), and Looney Tunes televised animations, but naughtier.
My favorite character is Frenchy, played by Marie-Pascale Elfman, who makes her way through her basement to an underworld where rules a jealous wicked queen. Another great character is Squeezit the chicken boy — weird! Adventures ensue with all kinds of strange characters and indecipherable conversations. I don’t know what is going on, but I love it. Click here to read the synopsis.
Originally, Forbidden Zone was in black and white, which is beautiful and how I saw it, but I guess it is offered in color now too.
Forbidden Zone is the type of anti-Hollywood script that I can pretty much guarantee you will not sell in Hollywood and you will have to produce yourself; and by all means, please do!
Subscribe
-
-
Content RSS