San Diego Reader

It's hard to put hunger onscreen. Starvation, sure, that's easy: the visible ribcage, the distended belly, the face stretched tight over the skull. But a hungry person can look very much like a full person - can even look like someone who eats too much. Directors Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush seek to evoke empathy for those suffering its effects by training their cameras on children: a girl in Colorado who can't hear her teacher over her growling stomach, a couple of Philadelphia kids who are eating the processed filler their mother swore she'd never give her kids, an overweight second-grader in Mississippi who eats cookies because they're cheap. The problem is clear; the solution, less so. As one of the talking heads notes, it's not just about Big Agriculture making sure that food subsidies go to corporate farms. It's also about poverty and community in America. 2012.

— Matthew Lickona

• View trailer
• Rated PG | 1 hour, 24 minutes
• Official website

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