The world’s largest and most acclaimed culinary-focused film festival kicks off in just under one week and as always, there will be plenty of great Canadian-made films to check out during the six-day festival.
In addition to the films on display throughout the week, many of the feature films and shorts also come complete with programming, interactive activities, chef-led in-theatre tastings, and more to help reinforce this year’s Global Indigenous theme through the celebration of Indigenous culture, filmmaking, and food.
Whether you’ve been lucky enough to snag a ticket to take part on location in Wolfville, Nova Scotia or you’re planning to tune in via the many concurrent livestreams that will be available throughout the festival, you can count on Devour! The Food Film Fest to provide an incredible week of food and film.
The Magnitude of All Things
The Water Walker
Walking with Plants
Synopsis: Styawat/Leigh Joseph is a Sḵwxw̱ú7mesh Nation ethnobotanist. As she navigates walking between academic and cultural worlds, she contemplates her relationship with plants and their role as teachers.
Directed by Trevor Dixon Bennett and Leigh Joseph
Screens online and in-person Wednesday, October 20 during the Indigenous Shorts program from 10 - 11:10 a.m.
The Secret Path
Synopsis: A powerful visual representation of the life of Chanie Wenjack, The Secret Path is an animated film adaptation of Gord Downie’s album and Jeff Lemire’s graphic novel. The film is divided into 10 chapters, each a song from Downie’s musical retelling of Chanie’s story—from his escape from the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School to his subsequent and heartbreaking death from hunger and exposure to the harsh weather. The final product is a uniquely immersive emotional experience, and an insight into the life of a little boy who, as Gord has said, he never knew, “but will always love.”
Directed by Gord Downie and Jeff Lemire
Screens online and in-person Thursday, October 21 at 10 a.m.
Chiliheads
Synopsis: A journey as playful as it is evocative, Chiliheads takes us on the hot pepper road to five countries—Canada, the United States, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, and India—to meet those lovers of hot peppers, AKA “chiliheads”, to discover their culture and the sub-culture that surrounds the consumption of this unique spicy fruit.
Directed by Julien Fréchette
Screens online and in-person Thursday, October 21 at 5:30 p.m.
Hell or Clean Water
Synopsis: Former fisherman Shawn Bath—who just 10 years earlier thought nothing of tossing garbage out of his truck window—has an epiphany when he starts diving the harbours of his native Newfoundland. He makes it his mission to clean the ocean floor, one truck tire at a time.
Directed by Cody Westman
Pituamkek: A Mi’kmaq Heritage Landscape
Synopsis: Located in northwestern Prince Edward Island (Epekwitk), in close proximity to the Lennox Island First Nation, there is a chain of islands known in the Mi’kmaq language as Pituamkek (Bee-doo-um-gek), which means ‘At the Long Sand Dune’, and in English as Hog Island and the Sandhills. Pituamkek has helped sustain the Mi’kmaq people on Epekwik for thousands of years. This film celebrates the lands of Pituamkek: its nature and its Mi’kmaw traditions, and profiles work underway to create an Indigenous Protected Area and National Park Reserve there.
Directed by John Hopkins
Screens online and in-person Friday, October 22 during the Devour! Chefs and Shorts Gala
Wildhood
Synopsis: Filmed in English and Mi’kmaw, Wildhood is a Two-Spirit odyssey filmed along the Bay of Fundy in Mi’kma’ki (Nova Scotia). In a rural trailer park, Link lives with his toxic father and younger half-brother Travis. When Link discovers his Mi’kmaw mother could still be alive, it lights a flame to make a run for a better life. As the boys journey across Mi’kma’ki, Link finds community, identity, and love in the land where he belongs.
Directed by Bretten Hannam
Screens online and in-person Sunday, October 24 at 8 p.m. during the Closing Gala.
