Finding North

Finding North (2012) was directed by Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush. Silverbush’s husband, celebrity chef Tom Colicchio, served as the film’s executive-producer, along with Jeff Skoll and Diane Weyermann. Jacobson is a celebrated documentary filmmaker. Her previous projects include Toots (2006) and American Standoff (2002). Silverbush has prior experience in scripted movies; having written produced and directed On the Outs (2004) (IMDB). Colicchio frequently appears as a judge on the reality-television program Top Chef, as well as owning several high-end gourmet restaurants (craftrestaurantsinc.com). Silverbush first witnessed the harsh realities of hunger in America while mentoring a young girl in New York. The girl was struggling in school despite being clearly intelligent. Trying to help, Silverbush had the girl moved to a private school, which ended up making things worse. The new school did not offer free lunches to its students, so the girl had to resort to digging through the trash in order to find food (Kung).

The title Finding North is meant to imply that by neglecting its poor and hungry, America has lost its moral compass. It covers a wide variety of topics. The film touches on government-subsidized farming and its effect on food prices. It deals with school lunch programs and the government’s (lack of) funding for them. It addresses the consequences of a diet made up mostly of empty calories and the lack of healthy food available in urban areas and other “food deserts”. The film’s primary conclusion seems to be that more tax money needs to be spent on welfare programs that counteract hunger. We need more money for student lunches, more money for food stamps, more money for soup kitchens and food banks. The audience is encouraged to send off a text message at the end of the film to show support for the cause.

Finding North documents the struggles of three primary subjects. The first is Barbie Izquierdo, who is a single mother living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Unemployed and receiving food stamps, Barbie struggles to feed her two children. Having been raised on cheap processed food, Barbie has vowed to give her kids only nutritious things to eat. To shop at a fully stocked grocery store, which sells fruit and vegetables, Barbie spends over three hours on the bus. After months of searching, Barbie finally finds a job, only to learn she now makes too much money to qualify for food stamps. With the added cost of child-care, Barbie discovers she can best provide for her children by remaining unemployed.

The second subject is Rosie, a struggling fifth-grader living in Colbren, Colorado. Rosie lives at her Grandparent’s house with her mother, Trish. The family does not qualify for food stamps. Rosie has a difficult time paying attention in school and is frequently behind in her homework. Rosie’s family receives food from a food bank run by the local church. The church provides a hot meal for over 80 local people every week. Rosie complains that she often goes to bed hungry, while listening to the sound of her stomach growling.

The third subject is Tremonica, a second-grader from Mississippi, who suffers from health problems caused by her poor diet. Her mother, Kimberly, feeds Tremonica a steady supply of cookies, chips and soda. Kimberly claims she would purchase more fruits and vegetables if they were in her price range. The nearest fully stocked grocery store is a 45-minute drive away, making healthy food even more unaffordable. Their home, the Mississippi Delta area, has the highest rate of hungry people in the country; it also has the highest rate of obesity.

Finding North combines several different documentary modes as defined by Bill Nichols. It most closely fits the definition of an expository mode documentary. Through use of voice-over and presentations of graphs and figures, it “emphasizes verbal commentary and argumentative logic” (Nichols, 31). The other documentary elements included in the film seem to be used primarily to reinforce its argumentative logic. Several interviews with the film’s subjects are shown, causing the film to qualify for the participatory mode of documentaries. There is also footage of the subjects going about their day-to-day lives. This footage shows “direct engagement with everyday life of subjects as observed by an unobtrusive camera” (Nichols, 31) which is the definition of an observational documentary. Since the filmmaker’s main goal seems to be presenting argumentative logic to convert the audience to their point of view, the film is an expository documentary overall.

Most documentary films use more then one mode (Nichols, 32). The combination of elements used here seems to work for Finding North. Simply presenting facts and data about food-insecure people would have been dull. Putting a face on the problem of hunger by including the film’s three primary subjects helps humanize the issue. Audience members are able to witness firsthand how hunger can damage lives. The choice of subjects was important, and the filmmakers found three very sympathetic, lovable individuals to help win over the audience. The participatory and observational portions of the film are essential to the overall success of the feature, yet they are not without their flaws.

Much of the observational footage included in the film appears to have been somewhat staged by the filmmakers. Likewise, the filmmakers seem to be leading the subjects with the questions they ask them during the interviews. They likely do this in order to drive home the points they want to make with their film. It is relatively common to find this sort of footage in documentary films. As far back as Nanook of the North (Flaherty, 1922) with its staged scenes of Inuits hunting walruses, and its fake western-style family structures (Rothman, 24), documentary filmmakers have been manipulating the reality presented in their films for years. The tradition of offering a somewhat unfaithful view of reality is carried on with Finding North.

Works cited

Finding North. Dir. Kristi Jacobson, Lori Silverbush. Independent, 2012. Film.

"Filography of Kristi Jacobson." IMDB.com. Amazon Co. 2012.Web.

"Filmography of Lori Silverbush." IMDB.com. Amazon Co. 2012. Web.

Nichols, Bill. Introduction to Documentary. Indiana University Press,2010. Print

Kung, Michelle. 'Finding North' Shines Spotlight on Food Insecurity. The Wall Street Journal. Jan 01, 2012. Web.

Rothman, William. The Filmmaker as Hunter. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1998. Print.

"Tom Colicchio Chef/Owner." Craftrestaurantsinc.com. Wichcraft Inc. 2012. Web.