My Documentary Interview
Film: Future of Food
Interviewee: Director Deborah Koons Garcia
Interview Date: January 14, 2010

Dixon Christie interviews director Deborah Koons Garcia about her film, The Future of Food, and her upcoming production, Soil.

Check out The Future of Food website at http://www.thefutureoffood.com/.

MyDocumentary.ca:Wonderful, OK. So, let's just start by bringing people up to date. A lot of people know you as a... like, one of the founders of this new food movement, your anti GMO, grass-root organizations, so tell us about some if this stuff you were doing before you made this ground breaking movie, Future of Food?
Deborah Garcia:Well, I started making films when I was in college. Like, geez, 40 years ago. And I just really liked it. I went to school in Chapel Hill North Carolina, and I just really enjoyed it. I made mainly, I made fiction films. I didn't do documentaries. You know, and
then I worked for people and made my own little films, and then I went to the San Francisco Art Institute in the, you know around 1980 and got an MSA and was continuing to make you know, fiction films, and then I made some educational films. There was one especially called, All About Babies, that was about the first 2 years of life, a 5 part series, narrated by Jane Alexander, which was really great and won a CINE Golden Eagle and some other awards. And then, and then I made a feature documentary in the early 90's and then my husband passed away, so I had a lot of stuff I had to do for his estate so I didn't make cinema film for a few years. When I came back to making films, i just wanted to do something really serious. And I wanted to do, I figured I wanted to do a documentary. I didn't want to do a film that was you know, be about me or whatever. I just wanted a very challenging serious topic and so I've been interested in food since college and I became a vegetarian in 1970 and all that so I was excited about food. And then when I started working on it, I discovered, you know, genetic engineering and patenting seeds and Monsanto and Monsanto buying up all the seeds and buying all this stuff and I was just so outraged. Because I didn't know about it and I was living in Marin County
eating, not that I was so conscious about all that stuff and I had no idea what was going on. This is about, you know, around 2000 and I figured I had to make a film about it. So, I started shooting right before 9/11 and we, I worked on it for about, it was very well received, it played a lot of festivals. Film Forum decided to run it, we had a great run in New York, 2 weeks, I think at least 2 weeks there and another 3 weeks at IFC and  a theatrical run of 30, over 30 cities and some film festivals and food festivals and farming
festivals and grass roots screenings and you know really fun. And I get a lot of support for it, because it's important and you know, I went myself. One of the things I sort of, I feel like I pioneered was, which was really fun was, people would call me up and say we really
want you to come to Spokane or to Iowa or to you know wherever, you know Pasadena or Maine and I would say, "Well, you know, I'll come. I'll come but I'll come, I'll show the film and then I'll be on the panel. I'm not going to do anything else. You have to do everything
else, including arrange for the publicity and if you want me to do interviews, whatever. What ever you want me to do, I'll do, but you have to set it up. I'm not going to set it up. And what I guess what they do, and I what they DID do is they would contact local people,
like local farmers, or winemakers or beer makers or cheese or professors or scientists or...Oh! First they would get food people and food people would come like an hour and a half before the screening and set up tables and set up their food. And people would come early and they'd sample the food and eat and chat and have fun and then we
would have the screening and then we'd have a panel with me and 2 or 3 people locally. These would be the scientist or the farmers or the whatever and then some people would even have a party after that the max you can do. You know, you can have the sampling the food before, and then the panel, and then a party if you want to do all that, and
people DID all that [laughs]. And what was so great about that was, almost none of those people had ever done anything like that before. And, you know, we suggested to them, things that they needed to do you know like make sure you get announcements in local magazines, make sure you know you make the deadlines, we gave them some tips you know, call up the radio about what to do and they did it. Because it was the first time they were doing it,  you know they out a lot of energy into it and they you know, would form committees and form contact people and reach out. And it really helped create some communities and some momentum around the food issues and so the film became like a vehicle for people to really create action in their communities. I was really happy about that because I think you know one of the fun things that documentaries can do is people, well any film but especially documentaries that are focused on a certain issue; it allows people a starting point you know. It's a common experience that people have when they see a film and I think relating it to the building of community and coming together, not just seeing it on your TV, which is great, but also having it be an event that people can come to and link up with other people I think you know, I think it is great thing people can do now.

MyDocumentary.ca:So, now that we understand your inspiration, tell us about the methodology that you have employed to tell your story?
Deborah Garcia:Well, first thing I did was, before I even started filming, I contacted various people that I knew that were really interested in food stuff; a woman, a friend of mine, she's a journalist who had a radio, a local radio show about food for years and you know we contacted people, I contacted many people I respected and said, you know "Who do you think I should talk to?" And they gave me a list and I researched those people and started talking to them and when I kinda figured out the direction I was going to go. And then the first thing we shot was Percy Schmeizer up in Canada and that was
the first thing we shot, and that was great. We shot that right before 9/11 and then we came back and then there was 9/11 you know? So the whole world changed. And then I just, you know part of how I conceived the film, because its such a complex topic, is just looking at the food system, the genetic engineering and how do you make sense of it?
First I thought of it like a crystal, you know? And I was thinking, I have different sides of the crystal, but then i kinda ran out of that analogy. It kinda felt like that wasn't helping me figure out how to write it and you know, and how to just tell it and what I did was just
simply start, OK what's important? Percy. OK, what do we need to know before we meet Percy so that we can understand what he went through? Of course we didn't understand patenting, you know? So then became, then it would be, what is the next thing? What is the next question I would ask myself? and then You know, the next question would be like,
"How can they get away with that?" you know, and it would be like you go, "OK yeah these people have infiltrated the government, that's how they get away with it. So, that was helpful in terms of creating the film. Was, 'what would be the next question that somebody would ask, that they would want the answer to? And you know, my editor Vivian Hillgrove is just one of the best editors in the country or in the world, especially documentaries and we've worked together before on a previous film and she understood my, you know we were on the same wavelength about esthetics and also being very conscience about the audience. You know, in that film is primarily an emotional experience? So if you load people up with to much information they're going to
turn off, so they're not going to take in what you want them to take in. So you have to really judge that and as far as making the film, 'cause I've done this really complex documentary on babies which is sort of similar; that one is a 5 part series but its similar because
you have a lot of complex details and you want to distill them down into a film that people like, and that they can make sense and they can follow. So, they can make sense of, so, I knew I could do that, you know what I mean? I knew I had the ability to do that and I knew
it takes a lot of time and so, the interesting thing you know, is when you have these kinds of documentaries that are trying to relay information is you know, when does the, when does your talent, the person your interviewing, when does an interviewee say what you want them to say? And when does the narrator say what you want them to say? And when does it not need to be said,  you just show it, you know? So that became even more interesting, because its always more powerful to show it then just to have somebody there yaking about it. So, that was also a really interesting challenge to figure out, you know and of course when your making a film you have a point that you want you make
but the footage that you have covering it is really short [laughs].

MyDocumentary.ca:Yeah.
Deborah Garcia:The sentence is long but the shot is short or you know, that whole thing of how you balance the visual with the sound. You know and how you, do you use just, this whole thing with pacing because I think a lot of young people now because of all the
technology they tend to want to have a lot of shots and cut stuff pretty fast and I'm you know more of a classical film maker so I tend to think that, you know I just don't believe in cutting things and squeeze in art, I think you have to give the audience a break and just
let the film breathe you know.

MyDocumentary.ca:If you look at Ken Burns movies, sometimes he can
spend 15 seconds up to a whole minute just looking at a single photo.
Deborah Garcia:Yeah. You know, I like that. I like that. I don't like the spacistic thing where the film maker is forcing, you know forcing stuff on me, you know like here's the next shot, here's the next shot. I like, I like to be able to reach out into the film. I don't like it
to force me, i don't like to feel too manipulated you know. I think that's like, you know, I don't mean I like boring long films, but I think you know, I, when I started making films, I sort of think of myself and also my editor who's also like my age, shes no spring
chicken, we're more classical film makers. Then as far as cuts go, there has to be some motivation in the cut, you know. There has to be some re,you know some connection between this shot and the next shot, whether its and idea, you know or whether its in one part of the frame. And then your consciously moving our eye to the next and then
there's the same part of the frame in the next shot. There's got to be some underlying sense to it. You can't just throw stuff up there cause you've been able to do that on your mac you know? And I think you know, there's a real difference between something that you put up on YouTube that you make and you know, sure people can make great films
that way but I think especially young film makers really need to take into account the audience. You know and when my editor was working on this film with soil and its our third major film we had done together, its this idea that when you watch the film, if you have test screenings you know,  work in progress screenings or test screenings
with various people, sit in the audience and be very conscious of when do they start fishing? You know? When do they start, when do you lose them? If you make a great film, you don't want to lose them. you want to keep them. Not that you wan to keep them on the edge of there seat for 90 minutes but you want them to be engaged and I think that that's
very important to, I mean if your really going to be a fine film maker and not just an informationalist who just puts stuff together and uses it in a certain way. I mean if you really want it to be a work of art, you want it to transform people and transform the way they see the world. You really have to honour the fact that you have a relationship
with the audience and that they are giving it their attention and that the images that you are putting up in front of them is going into their mind. You know those are going into their brain they're going to stay there forever. You have a responsibility and I think that um,
that something that sometimes with all this technology, it gets and can get lost in the enthusiasm to use the technology. Like one thing that is a funny little pet peeve of mine is these, you know these films now with The Hurt Locker, which I haven't seen and I really
respect Kathryn Bigelow as a film maker she is an excellent film maker. you know, but there is this style now that have like the camera be moving like nervous camera, jiggle camera you know what I mean?

MyDocumentary.ca:Yeah, point of view.
Deborah Garcia:Yeah, the point of view whatever its supposed to be a steady cam, like not even steady cam, like shaky cam. And the thing about what bugs me about that is that you know they reason why we accept film cuts is that we blink, you know?

MyDocumentary.ca:Yeah.
Deborah Garcia:The edits. Humans don't really see things the way that POV films, I mean every once in awhile you can have a shot like that because it can be effective but if the whole film is like that because its a style its really inaccurate because Humans don't see that way.

MyDocumentary.ca:Someone, an editor that I was working with actually said to me that um, film making should be an emersive experience where the viewer doesn't really experience or feel the changes in the shots. They completely forget the camera is there. And they develop a relationship with the subject matter much more naturally that way.
Deborah Garcia:I absolutely agree with that. I think that's one of the things we are lacking and the other thing is that humans don't, you know, human vision isn't shaky like that because you know we have stabilular systems that hold us steady. We don't see like that, so what we think when we see these shaky cameras is that the you, I call it the you are there camera, what they think is you are there. The fact is humans don't see that way. That's the supremacy of the machine over the human view. Your giving, that's the way machines see things, they don't have stabilular systems and that's the thing that really annoys me and people think they see this shaky camera work and they think Oh my God this is just like i was there because they are trained to think that. But in fact your not there because your right, you and your editor are right. Whats intriguing, you wouldn't be shaking around. You would be totally lost in that experience, you would be you know kind of jiggling her and then stopping there and doing something. You wouldn't be doing that at all. So I, that's what I think. I think that you want to be emerced in the experience and emerced in this, in whats there. And I don't think technique unless there's a good reason for it, I don't think technique should call to much attention to it. So, there needs to be craft but I think if your announcing your craft over and over and over again, its not craft, you know. your sort of a, its kind of a power trip for the audience.

MyDocumentary.ca:And then if we go back to ken Burns, the humility of and having such patience, can leave such incredible breathing room in between his shots and its really a humble approach to crafting something isn't it?
Deborah Garcia:Yeah, and also it allows people to, it allows that fullness of experience instead of chopping it up into little pieces. It allows it you know, it allows it to grow and allows your mind to sort of digest. I totally agree with that. I think, you know I think he's, he really has done so much amazing work you know it would have been so much more fun to study the civil war when I was in school watching his films than reading text books. He's done such a service for really letting people, you know, learn about history. I mean, hes
just its just really quite remarkable, his body of work.

MyDocumentary.ca:How do you think your movie has changed the ay that
people think about food?
Deborah Garcia:Well you know its been incredibly popular and allover the world, and people, we still get emails from people all the time because its playing on Hulu you know? It's really available now. For better or for worse but, you know, not, it's kinda hard to monitorize stuff if you, if everybody's, the people that, the changes that, you know we've got emails from people always from when it started and its been very popular and you knwo people bought 50 copies and send them out to all their friends and some buy 200 copies and send them to their legislatures or, it changes how people eat, how people see food, and it changes how people have started farmers markets because they
saw the film. I've gotten a lot of people telling me that. People have  changed jobs because they saw that film, they could be working for some chemical farm thing and they see the film and then they decide they don't want to do it anymore. And one guy changed the kind of law he practised because he saw the film and its been very influential I
guess you know its pretty incredible what its done 'cause I think it was like the first food film to really do that and because its kind of an emotional, we have an emotional connection to food. But, I think because we did such a good job, you know I can say that because its collaborative, I'm not bragging about myself. But we really brought it home to people and you know its,and you know people, and also once you see that film and you understand whats genetic engineering is, understand what Monsanto was trying to do, you rise that its outrageous and that's the word that people use when they email. I mean
even now we get people emailing everyday, people seen the film from all over the world and they go, "This is outrageous!" you know? And you know, I think if they DO contact their legislators and its you know the whole food thing its helped this grass roots, grass roots movement incredibly. Still even now with Obama in administration is that, well I'll give you an example; a friend of mine's uncle went to Harvard Law School with Ralph Nader. And they sat next to each other and you know this was years ago, like 55 years ago they sat next to each other because their names you know their names were you know M and N. She sent her uncle a copy of the Future of Food and then Ralph Nader saw it and called up Andrew Kimbell, who's in the film and then they went and had a meeting with Vilsack, you know the secretary of defence and agriculture because someone sent him The Future of Food and he watched it. And they were talking about you know, Monsanto and monopolies and taking all the seeds, and so here you go, right there. And I think that's, that's just one thing of many. I wanted it to be a tool of activism. I wanted people to send it around and show it and take action. Its been real heartening you know?

MyDocumentary.ca:So, a lot has changed in the last 6 years since you released the movie, namely the success of directors like Michael Moore. Why do yo think Michael Moore has been able to, in movies like that, been able  to, we used the word monotize earlier but lets just say, been able to be so unbelievably successful in such a short amount of time? When this movie about food seems to be so much more important than some of his topics, not that he doesn't make great movies.
Deborah Garcia:Well, I think that he's got  a name for himself and hes controversial in his films and you know, I mean there is also this thing that is, not so much anymore but its, you know when we, when The Future of Food came out and we turned it in to like a, you know to the academy, for like the Oscar thing, when we filled out the form it said um, I don't know the words it used, but basically it said we don't want educational films. And they did choose it as one of the, the did screen it at the, the screening committee did screen it, it was one of the, it didn't make the cut but it was one, and they did choose it to
play in this series at UCLA that the documentary screening committee chose as the Documentary of the Year and the Academy has it in its collection and all that. But, you know, they didn't want an educational film so a year or two later, it can be a truth 1 which is a totally educational film so you know there was this cliche and there's a little bit of it still happening now that you know, the films that people will approve of in terms of documentaries are documentaries where the film maker is in the film. Now when you think of Super Size Me, and you think of Michael Moore and even Born into Brothels, you think at a film convention you want to see the film maker in there you want to see the film maker suffering and undergoing an ordeal and Michael Moore sort of does, because hes chasing down all these people. And to be this sort of character you become this personality and society loves that; the film maker that becomes somebody and you know there's this convention and I didn't want to do that. I didn't want it to be about me at all. I didn't want to be in it. And I definitely didn't want that so. So that was the first you
know, that was unusual for you knwo to just have a straight educational documentary 6 years ago, the film had to be really good to get attention. But hose weren't the kinds of films getting attention. Today, of course everyone is making educational films. I also think
there's this other choice I made as a film maker, like the narrator in the film is the woman who started off as an assistant editor and associate producer and she has a very nice voice and a beautiful voice I'm listening to her going I really like her voice, what do you think lets use hers? So, I didn't even want to use a celebrity for the narrator because I didn't want it, I didn't want people to think this was something coming from out there, pretty well I wanted it to be grass roots and people feel like I can do that I can relate with that. It was very deliberate. But you know the films that get more approval  and attention from the media are films that ultimately become commercial films with celebrities endorsements with celebrities in them and my film isn't that because that isn't what I wanted so. You know and I like Michael Moore's films and hes very controversial and
you know, that always helps and the more controversial you can be, the more publicity you get, and also he was, you knwo hes done a lot of work and he did that TV show and you know i think his whole background. Like hes sort of, very um, i mean you know hes sort of working class roots sort of um, gives him a cache in terms of sort hes personally, hes in there personally attacking things, which I think is great but I didn't want to do that because that's not in my personality. I wanted to remain private and not have it be about me. Yeah and also I think that you knwo, the foods thing is, you know people didn't, you know years ago there was snobby, people weren't thinking about food politically. They were thinking there's snobby Berkeley food and there's vegans and there's this and there's that but there's not much people paying attention to the food system. No one
was doing it, you know? And then you've got Food Inc which is sort of the one that's got there you know like 5 years late [laughs]. And that s like a commercial, that like an infomercial with celebrity endorsements and Hollywood has sort of tried to appocreate the...

MyDocumentary.ca:Subject matter.
Deborah Garcia:Subject matter! I think they had put a lot of money into it but I don't knwo that they, they had seeming success but I don't know they had real success. don't But you know they sort of, you know came late after those people who already knew stuff because they had already seen the film but I think you know, you know I think in
terms of changing peoples lives, I think that grass roots film that you know your neighbour gives you that changes the way you eat. Even if its not something that seems commercially successful its actually more powerful because your getting it from some,you knwo your not getting it from an advertisement and its putting a lot of money into a
promotional budget and there are different ways for people to get information and I was actually pretty happy with this, with that idea that I could step back. And you knwo I got a lot of support for the  film you knwo I've done lots of interviews, screenings and all kinds
of things. So, but its you know, I don't know  i was kind of going against the trend by doing something that wasn't celebrity oriented or film maker ordeal oriented and you know what I mean?

MyDocumentary.ca:I know you must talk to a lot of people and I know also the movie was quite life changing for people that I know. I'm just wondering, do people report to you they have difficulty shopping? It seems that the more you learn about food and what's going into our food and everything, the more difficulty there is to shop?
Deborah Garcia:Right, well that's the thing you know, I actually, I'm a big believer in organic food so I, for me organic is really, I just know all these, i look at somebody, I know so much about food and I have so many friends who are scientists and you know. You look at some of these foods with 27 different chemicals on them. You know, but it,
so you know I think that people try, people you know say I'm going to go organic and they you know, they sign up with CSA and they you know they, they just become more careful about what they eat and I think that people, you know I think people need to, personally I think people should stop eating so much processed food and start eating simple raw food. So, I'm kind of a total, I'm not a foodie, I'm not like, you know fancy food but I just think we need to just get back to basics in the food department but I think the other thing is with this film, especially since a lot of people, I mean so many people have emailed us and told us that now they shop farmers markets and they go through CSA and you know they buy organic and its so much easier now to access good food, than it was 10 years ago, I mean, 10 years ago if you had a health food store, you know a health food market or something near you, you could get it you know but otherwise you were lost. but this pressure of these people who want healthy food has really changes the food system.  You know even this whole thing that Michelle, Michelle Obama's doing and you know, know your farmer and more fruits and vegetables and that's because more and more people
demand that stuff. And so we are actually, we have changed the food  system. We people who eat and care, they're responding to us and I think the more we do that, the better. I mean even these big companies like Bon Appetit that, not the magazine but the food company that delivers food to the you know, lots of universities and school and
lots of corporate campuses and stuff. The people that they feed say, "we want local food", "we want organic food". So they've changed how they buy. So that means they buy from smaller farmers and local organic farmers and so its just this kind of really positive feed back loop that again has kind of taken place totally under the radar. The government hasn't done anything to help with that stuff, right? its all people. So, I think its you know tricky but I think you know if people stop eating processed food which means they have to cook you know more. Although you know there could be very good fast food, Mexican food can be great fast food. Middle eastern food like tabbouleh and you know I'm not against fast food I'm against junk food.  I eat fast food, I you know, I knwo a good burrito place, I know is not using I know they care about where they are accessing their corn. So its not GMO corn. You know I think that stuff is great and I don't think that people need to slave over a stove for you know 2 hours every night just to eat decent food, but I think that you know, for me I think the next step is for fast food to be, you know to access more food that people can see is fast food but that's healthy food, you know. Fast food doesn't necessarily mean your going to be eating burgers and coke, it can be other things and I think that, you know I think that is going to be the wave of the future is like food cards and things that people can do so they can, if they have a busy schedule that they can still, you know, feel like they are nourishing themselves.

MyDocumentary.ca:Well, Italy has this slow food movement you've probably heard about and...
Deborah Garcia:Yeah I've done a lot of stuff with slow food and I think that's great and I believe in you know I think that's really important and local producers and variety and but I also think that a lot of people realistically i mean you know, it takes a lot of time to
cook. And I think people can and they got into the habit of cooking and you know that cooking is fun and its great to hang out in the kitchen and you don't need to, and that's one of the only things about this economic downturn is that people are cooking more. And you know, instead of going to the mall, like for young people, instead of going
to the mall you know, charging up your charge card with a bunch of clothes you don't need, then spend the afternoon with your friends in the kitchen making pizza from scratch or something. Cooking can be fun and people end up in the kitchen, you know and people want to warm up the kitchens and lets let people do what they want to do and that's a happening movement and I love slow food and I've done a lot of stuff with slow food and shared my film with the slow food film festival and shared it at Cara Madre and I think that's wonderful and I think that not everybody, you know, it doesn't necessarily need to be as precious as people, you know, I've been to these slow food events and people
you know, I mean they are going into these talking eloquencey of the tastes of the various things that they're tasting and I mean I think that's great but I'm like OK, OK, not everyone is that interested in the making of food you know. Sort of you know kind of, this special
little, this special thing that you know I think that it is possible to be, to eat kind of a simple healthy diet. And not have it be, this kind of uh...

MyDocumentary.ca:Religious Experience.
Deborah Garcia:Yeah religious experience. [Laughs].

MyDocumentary.ca:Well, you know, you can buy organic tabbouleh that you add hot water to and you've got a prefect meal in 3minutes. You can add feta cheese and organic tomatoes and parsley and its delicious.
Deborah Garcia:Now see exactly, and its, I think that now we're talking and I think that is exactly what everybody needs to realize. That you don't have to eat, that you don't have to bake your own bread, unless you really really want to.

MyDocumentary.ca:So there's a couple of things here, IMDB says there's a factual error "The narrator claims, during the scene showing the Government", and I'm quoting them here, "Government seed bank, that companies can patent old seeds simply by being first to the patent office." This poster says that, "This is not true, the patent office only grants patents to newly discovered or newly created seeds", which one is true?
Deborah Garcia:Well, I'll give you an example, there was um, there was a um, a seed that grew a yellow bean, it was a yellow bean seed and a guy brought it up from Mexico, and he took it to the patent office and he put a patent on it, and they granted the patent. But a lot of people, some people challenged that patent because that meant the people of Mexico actually couldn't sell it without paying the patent fee. And so I think they ended up rescinding the patent but its actually you know, there's a theory of whats patentable and then there's the reality of whats patentable. And you know if someone claims its a patent thing that is you know that is, that is that has you know been around um, you know and the other thing is you can change one little thing and get a patent on it. And the most important  thing about the patenting of seeds is that they are actually patenting the DNA. its a different you now there are several different ways of patenting things. The plant protection, it used to be that you could patent seeds and plants, you could, it wasn't really a patent but you could call a P, i think its called PBV you could patent it but you, farmers could trade it, and you could replant you know it didn't happen to subsequent generations but you could, farmers could plant and you could do research on it. Those were things that you could do. The thing about what they  are doing with the seeds now with these
utility patents is yeah, your not even allowed to research those seeds without getting permission from Monsanto. So that's, the way that patent law reads, that person is right. but the way that it actually works is, they have patented stuff that they just found, and turned in and no one else had patented it. you know? that's the problem. And you
know, can you patent life?  and that's like the breast cancer gene. They didn't invent the breast cancer gene but they patented it, one of the genes responsible for breast cancer and that's a lawsuit now, they have a lawsuit going for that will end up in front of the supreme court and the supreme court will decide, can you patent life? Oh, it's very complex but, its the system, the system, the way that the system is working is you know, the way the system is working doesn't really relate to how you think the system would work when you read whats patentable. You know its supposed to be non obvious. But these seeds are not non obvious you know, and i think that the tricky thing is that its um, you know, you do get patents for these things and you know people can go after these patents and can get people to rescind it then patent them. Soy I guess soy things in Europe invent who Dona Chiva who is a friend of mine, they spend hours for like 8 or 9 years fighting that patent and they finally got that patent rescinded and for that reason, you know that it was non, that they couldn't patent it because it wasn't new. So the patent office is just, you know they started allowing the patenting of life you know because for the
genetic engineering thing. then it kind of bleed over to things that were non Genetic Engineering and you know there was never any clear, there's never been any clear definitions on on you know but it was, what they say your supposed to have in order to patent things is unfortunately is not the way the patent office has been defining things.

MyDocumentary.ca:So, I'm wondering about, you know how the way that they splice genes, how has that changed, will that change or is there another way to introduce new genetic material into a gene you know without introducing a virus?
Deborah Garcia:Yeah there is. You know there's a lot of genetic engineering going on and the world doesn't want it. They are trying to figure out other ways to do it and one way is they do is kind of like a mutagenics where you kind of um, you know you change the nature of the seed using, I don't know what they use, they use chemicals they might use radiation, see I did an experiment on this when I was in high school [laughs]. You know where you change the seed  using, that's what kind of exciting now is they're using technology to use what they call, markers? Identifying markers? Like you have these
marker genes where you, you can mark the gene and you can read it, you can see whether or not your gene got in there.

MyDocumentary.ca:Yeah I was just watching that, actually the gentleman
who was in your movie, was in another movie, was just talking about that These new marker genes.
Deborah Garcia:Yeah and its kind of exciting starting to bring things out that they've gotten so you can enhance the quality of something you want whatever you know whatever quality it is that you want it to have, you want to have bigger food or you wanted have you know this or that then you know you can use technology to find those things and not have to genetically engineer them. And it makes the breeding process faster and more efficient, which is great and a lot of people are doing that. It doesn't mean that we have to leave technology behind but i think that the genetic engineering because, people don't like it and its actually not, its kind of difficult you know what choice there is to make because  the way they genetically engineer seeds is they create 10's of thousands of monsters and you choose the one that doesn't look like a monster, you know. And so this idea of bringing in this marker identified breeding, where you can more quickly enhance,
you know you can more quickly find out that the traits you want to get in, you know you want to breed in have actually gotten in there and I think that's great and its exciting its also you know there's nothing in that process that is going to um, you know going to be weird.

MyDocumentary.ca:What surprised you the most in making your movie?
Deborah Garcia:The Future of Food? Well, um I guess, you know, I think the thing that...while I was making it or while it came out?

MyDocumentary.ca:Well either or, I mean I like...
Deborah Garcia:Well, I think making it what was a little surprising was how complex the topic was and how challenging it was to actually distill it and its funny because I read that book and um, Guns, Germs and Steel, you knwo which is a great book, very thick and complicated and stuff and so as to how um, agriculture developed, and so I read it
and you know who wrote the, like the first um, yo know opening of the film, the first paragraph you know the opening of the film so I wrote it. I wrote out the narration and I showed it to my editor and she cracked up and shes like slash slash slash slash slash slash [laughs]. OK, that like way too long and way too wordy. I said Oh OK back to the
drawing board. So what I ended up writing I was like 10,000 years ago people began planting and saving seed. Agriculture flowered and civilizations were born. [laughs] So that's what I got, that's what I could do from that whole bit that I spent a week reading. What surprised me was how important it is to distill the information and there's ways to say things that you know the tricky thing is with something like this where you want to be really accurate is you have to pair away and distill and you have to narrow something down so that you have the most efficient way of saying it and its still true, you know what I mean? Because sometimes you cut stuff out and you, you know you have this thing and you edit it so much that its not true. I mean its true its just sort of not um you know you leave too much out if you cut it so the challenging thing was how to distill it to the minimum amount of words and still have it be absolutely accurate. And you know sometimes using just one word, you know or in the film, just one idea you know its very tricky, and people you know, and I found that one of the wasn't like a big problem but one of the things I noticed is when you know people would cover the film and do media and
they would interview me and they would, they would kind of you know, whats the word I am looking for? They would sort of rehash what I had said but they would, oh whats the word? Paraphrase!

MyDocumentary.ca:Paraphrase, yeah.
Deborah Garcia:And then in the paraphrase they got long because they would include something that wasn't accurate or they would think that like, or they would sort of think that they would genetically engineer round up ears into round up ready cobs. And you know its kind of amusing and I realize just how hard I had worked you know and that  even changing a few words, all of a sudden your into some realm where something is like, well that is just totally inaccurate. So, always the tricky thing is how to pair it down without losing the truth because you cant you know, sorry this its true but oh yeah there's
this and there's that and what about this. And that of course is just, in a film you cant do that. And then as far as a film coming out, I was really you know, you make a film and maybe you are just going to have 5 people see it at a festival. I was really surprised at how popular it was.  was surprised at how many people loved the film and saw it over and over and was showing to all their friends and I mean, you know like really straight people and old people and you know hip people you know, like super hip film makers. You know there's like "oh I'm gonna show this to my friends" you know? [laughs]. Its very
heartening cause I wanted to make it acceptable to every kind of person and it was my goal  was to make a house nite in Kansas and show to my church group and well opening at Film Forum in New York. Recently we've been getting a lot of emails from Christians you know? I don't know who, there's some christian people that are really
enthusiastic about The Future of Food, so we have a lot of people calling us wanting to buy the grass roots screening rights to show to their church groups which is really wonderful. You know and some of these people that they call on they really are nice old ladies and they are like "well my neighbour told me about this and..." and I love it.

MyDocumentary.ca:What did you shoot the film on and what did you edit it on?
Deborah Garcia:Uh we shot it I think Beta, no. God, OK I cant remember. Beta?... Well we edited on a Final Cut pro on a Mac. And we shot it on Beta. I cant remember what it is.

MyDocumentary.ca:What are you shooting your new movie "Soil" on?
Deborah Garcia:Its a, we're shooting it in HD.

MyDocumentary.ca:You are? OK.
Deborah Garcia:ts a Panasonic camera in HD and its great!

MyDocumentary.ca:[laughs]
Deborah Garcia:And again Final Cut Pro on a Mac and its um you know, it looks great.

MyDocumentary.ca:We like to ask people the total number of hours they you shot vs. the final length?
Deborah Garcia:I think with the future of food we shot 70 hours and we ended up with a 90 minute film. And this soil film we've shot,  I'm at 100 hours and we'll probably shoot another ten at most and it will pick up, and it will probably, maybe be a 2 hour film.

MyDocumentary.ca:Can I call you to talk to you about, "Soil" when you
release it?
Deborah Garcia:Yeah., No yeah that's going really very well. That's pretty exciting. We shot in India and in Egypt and in the UK but it was kinda really fun doing, getting the crew over to these places and getting everyone together and you know working with fixers and it was quite, quite an adventure.

MyDocumentary.ca:How many people in your crew?
Deborah Garcia:Well, there's the sound man the cameraman me and my associate producer, who was young, she started working for me right out of college. And I taught her how to be a production manager and shes really good at the at kind of stuff anyways but I didn't know that she would be necessarily but, I said OK our setting up your
setting up the shoot and we're shooting in India and getting all the permits and all the stuff and it was pretty hysterical you know she had to wake up at 2 in the morning and Skype the fixer over there, but you know it was, some people just have this ability to just get, they
are good at that they are good organizers so. I kind of got a whole bunch of  young people working for me now and they're, you know, they're really good with technology and  they're motivated and you know its fun. They, its kind of nice to see that generation, they're very creative but they're very serious. But they do such good work I mean they're very well organized and they're responsible so that's,  I've been fortunate in that. I found great people to work with so that's been fun.

MyDocumentary.ca:We've got one more question, that we ask everybody and it might seem a little off topic but, I think its right on the topic, and that is; Intelligent design or evolution and why?
Deborah Garcia:Well I think they don't necessarily exclude each other for me. I think, I don't know, for me I think I just feel like if something is intelligently designed it will evolve. You know what I mean?

MyDocumentary.ca:Is there, are there cases of positive evolution? I know there are scientists, a lot of scientists and yourself included, since we've, in order to genetically modify and organisms you now you currently have to add a virus, and I've seen all this scientific talk on mutating tapeworms, and you know basically what difficulty they face in doing that. I'm just wondering are there enough successful examples of positive evolution?
Deborah Garcia:Well, maybe humans [laughs]. Yeah I don't know I think its um, you know my concern is I think I don't know, you know, I don't really see, I guess for me, you know I guess i feel like you can believe there is benevolent power in the universe and also believe that we're evolving. I don't see those as mutually exclusive. I think what we'll see more is devolution, you know? I think we are kind of devolving now. And that is a real concern you know? I think we're, I think politics is devolving and you know I think that for me the concern is that were not you know, becoming more,you know were not becoming more intelligent and more you know, becoming better humans, I think because of all our, the stress of this technological world you know is people are getting less civilized and that's, that to me is, you know i think this idea of the survival of the fittest, its kind of, its kind of, its kind of simplistic, you know? Cause I don't know, I think the reason I got interested in soil was this idea of mutualism. That in order for the organisms in the soil to exist, other organisms have to exist. The plants exist with the fungi, you know and with the other organisms there is a mutualism. And other than one of those organizations having to dominate the others is that we have to develop this sense of mutualism. And that is what will help us evolve,if we all evolve together. Cause if it turns into wall street, because wall street had become so horrible, "well were the biggest building we can do whatever we want cause that's the way nature is" well that is not the way nature is. Nature is much more mututalistic. Naturally I don't know if they're asking, I don't know if they are on
the right track at looking at it, you know?

MyDocumentary.ca:Wonderful well, this has been a great experience I thank you very much for your time.
Deborah Garcia:Thank you. And get back to me about the soil thing because that a very
interesting topic.

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