[getsmart-l] "The Lie of the Land" Documentary - Britain "how little commitment there is on the part of the government to producing our own food, "

[John O'Gorman]

"I also discovered how little commitment there is on the part of the government to producing our own food, rather there is a commitment to importing it." 

In the CBC extract,  below this interview,  you have a link to watch the actual documentary.

http://www.hotdocs.ca/index.php/daily/q_a_the_lie_of_the_land/
Q & A: THE LIE OF THE LAND
Posted Fri, April 25, 2008 in Features and Q&As

 

Hot Docs programmer Angie Driscoll interviews filmmaker Molly Dineen about her recent BAFTA award-winning film THE LIE OF THE LAND


Angie Driscoll: You began the filming process with an interest in exploring the fox hunt. How did the film change as you were filming? Did you start out with one intention and, as is often the case, end up following another story as it emerged over the course of filming?

Molly Dineen: Actually, I never intended to make a film about fox hunting. I'd dabbled for some years in that general idea but had always rejected the idea because of the fear of stereotyping and re-confirming prejudices. In the story of the hunting ban, I felt there were issues of town and country – tribal differences – and yet more examples of the ongoing tensions in England between 'new and old Britain’ that made me want to look into it. Having gone as far away from London as possible to a remote part of Cornwall I then met a wonderful character who I thought would make a great subject for a portrait film. He seemed a timeless character and was loosely attached to the local amateur hunt. He then took me out in his van to collect some animals to feed the hunting hounds and I watched as he started shooting perfectly healthy animals that the farmers couldn’t afford to keep. At that point the film had to change course again and I followed the story of "the flesh run,” the end of livestock farming and the British attitude to animals generally.

AD: The camaraderie you shared with your characters is palpable. How did your relationships with your main subjects develop? Were they ever hesitant to take you or your camera along on their daily runs?

MD: As to camaraderie, I only film people I like and get along with - who will put up with me. In fact when I made a short film about Tony Blair, we had to meet up just to see if we liked each other enough for the filming relationship to work! I think it's something of a sort of trademark of mine how people talk to the camera. It's my number one priority. I would put the personality of a character almost above the subject itself.

There was no hesitancy on the part of those people I filmed in THE LIE OF THE LAND because they wanted to get a message across. They were so angry about the hunting ban and the extraordinary amounts of legislation that were tying farmers' lives up in knots.

AD: Your film does a wonderful job of demonstrating the differences between urban and rural mind-sets and realities. What were some of your most surprising/shocking discoveries?

MD: My discoveries… I think the thing that shocked me most was seeing life created that is assigned no value. There are healthy calves shot at birth and they are wasted and thrown away. I found this fundamentally immoral. It begged the question, ‘at what stage is an animal important and at what stage is it not?’ The plight of the fox was a huge part of public debate for several years but no one every spoke of calf shooting as a normal part of modern farming practice.

I also discovered how little commitment there is on the part of the government to producing our own food, rather there is a commitment to importing it.

AD: The film contains very visceral images that the public often are not exposed to, or would rather not face. I know that I had a very physical reaction to the film. How easy is it for you to watch the film? How easy is it to find an audience?

MD: It's easier to watch the film than to shoot it. The shooting of the calves made me cry and the smell of the flesh house made me retch. I am very aware that people do not wish to see animals being killed. It is not primetime viewing. But I felt in this case that it was important for the audience to see the moment of death in order to respond to the situation that we have created, and are complicit in.

AD: Has the film changed your eating, living or buying habits?

MD: Yes, all of those, and it made me realize how difficult it is – when you live in a city or urban area – to avoid supermarkets.

Hot Docs congratulates Molly Dineen on her BAFTA win for best single documentary this week for THE LIE OF THE LAND, which screens on Saturday, April 26 at 1:30 PM at the SCENE Screening Room at the Isabel Bader Theatre.

http://www.cbc.ca/ourworld/

THE LIE OF THE LAND
May 4, Sunday 6:30 pm ET

View Episode (runs 23:32 - commercial breaks will go to black)

This week we look at how globalization and supermarket culture are ending a centuries old tradition of animal farming in Britain. Brian talks with documentary filmmaker Molly Dineen about her portrait of an English countryside, being changed forever.

The global food crisis is a subject at the top of the news. One aspect of this problem is how far globalization and urbanization have removed us from actual food production and radically changed our once close relationship with the land.  In prosperous societies we're consumers more than producers, and rather wasteful ones.

Those of us in cities are so out of touch we often don't notice the remarkably fast transformation of farmland around us. So, in Britain, for example, a centuries old tradition of animal farming is now close to disappearing altogether.  Supermarkets and cheap imported food are putting small farms out of business. With that, comes the collapse of an entire rural economy.

Animals are being destroyed, rather than being sold on the market, because they have become valueless in the face of foreign imports and bureaucratic controls imposed by the European Union.

Molly Dineen is a famous British documentary maker. She wanted to chronicle this decline in English rural life and recently produced a film that sparked a national debate in the UK. Brian interviews her and features segments of her compelling documentary.
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