Liverpool’s home-grown Food For Real Film Festival returns for a fourth year on Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 March 2016.

The only festival of its kind, it is run by creative food enterprise Squash Nutrition, the festival seeks to explore the impact of the foods we grow, eat, waste and share.

Food for Real is evolving and will unfold over 2016 with four special seasonal editions. Follow the festival journey through the four seasons.

This first, spring edition, will see a weekend of seasonal screenings and activities. Saturday’s food-focused films across the city have been chosen to inspire Sunday’s spring food action in Everton and Toxteth.

Come and have a go at digging, planting, talking, dancing plus of course cooking and eating.

All Food For Real Film Festival events are free to attend, but booking is essential. Festival-goers are invited to make a donation when booking tickets online.

Highlights of this year’s film programme include the UK Premiere of Can You Dig This? Produced by John Legend, and starring the amazing ‘gangsta’ gardener Ron Finley, this intimate portrayal of nature nurture in a harsh urban cityscape, celebrates diverse and hopeful people who dedicate their lives to growing food their own way, in LA.

Another major highlight is Disco Scouse. Back by popular demand, this celebratory, music-fuelled vegetable mash-up combines cooking, disco and awareness of food waste all under one big glitter ball. This time it’s a David Bowie themed-disco - so get your stardust fashion on.

Sign up to be a volunteer cook and help transform ingredients into a big tasty communal lunch of tasty veggie scouse, or just shimmy your way down to Fire Fit Hub and join in the big lunch.

And if you really want to embrace the spring, join in the dawn breakfast from 6.14 am in Princes Park, L8, for porridge and pancakes cooked over the fire plus yoga and wild-food foraging.

This event marks the beginning of a Sunday full of free spring food-focused activity for all ages.

Clare Owens of Squash Nutrition says: “Spring is the time to sow the seeds of both urban food and community action. We are really looking forward to sharing a fresh menu of grassroots and global food-focused films, discussions and activities to nourish the body, mind and spirit. Whatever food you’re into, come along and try something new.”

Food For Real Film Festival is funded by Liverpool City Council and NHS Liverpool CCG. The festival is sponsored by Liverpool Food People, Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority and Love Food Hate Waste.

Festival venues include Liverpool Small Cinema, Odeon Liverpool One, FACT, The Brink, The Bagelry, Toxteth Library, Fire Fit Hub and the Grapes Community Food Garden.

FOOD FOR REAL FILM FESTIVAL LISTINGS

SATURDAY 19TH MARCH

All events are free but booking is essential.

THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT

FEATURE ANIMATION

Nick Park, Steve Box /UK/2015/ Cert U /85m

10am

Odeon Liverpool One

Wensleydale-loving Wallace and loyal companion Gromit, who run pest control service Anti-Pesto, are called in when a mysterious infestation plagues their village, days before the big vegetable competition. The daring and inventive duo’s first feature-length adventure, that won an Oscar for best animation, is a lovingly rendered feat of stop-motion at its very best.

CAN YOU DIG THIS?

DOCUMENTARY

UK PREMIERE

Delila Vallot /USA/2015/ Cert PG /80m

11am Toxteth Library

4pm Liverpool Small Cinema

Renegade gardener Ron Finley plus Michael ‘Spicy’ Evans, Kenya Johnson, Hosea Smith and Quimonie Lewis all share love of seeds and the soil and are dedicated to growing food their own way in Los Angeles. Vallot’s intimate portrayal of nature nurture in a harsh urban cityscape, produced by John Legend, champions these homegrown food heroes as they persevere to #growsomeshit

SEEDS OF SOVEREIGNTY

DOCUMENTARY

The Gaia Foundation/UK/2013/Cert U/37m

SEEDS OF TIME

DOCUMENTARY

Sandy McLeod/USA/2013/ Cert PG /77m

11am

Liverpool Small Cinema

This double bill offers two very different world perspectives on the essential preservation of seed diversity. ‘Seeds of Sovereignty’ shares the experiences of African communities embarking on a journey to revive their traditional seed diversity, and take back control of their food systems. This is a story of hope, revival and commitment; a journey to restore seed and food sovereignty in Africa.

In ‘Seeds of Time’ we meet agricultural pioneer Cary Fowler who has realised his dream to build the first global seed bank. Set in an Arctic mountainside, the vast Svalbard vault houses the worlds most prized crops in order to protect the future of our food against climate change, politics and war.

WINSTANLEY

FEATURE

Kevin Brownlow, Andrew Mollo/UK/1975/ Cert PG /96m

2pm

Liverpool Small Cinema

Gerrard Winstanley and the Diggers became the first guerrilla gardeners in the 17th century by asking ‘What is public space?’ and ‘How best do we feed ourselves?’. Their radical planting brought hard lessons about the commons and has informed debate on these questions in all the centuries since.

AFTER WINTER, SPRING

DOCUMENTARY

Judith Lit/USA/France/2013/PG/75m

3pm

Unit 51

‘After Winter, Spring’ is a beautiful portrait of farming families in South-West France told with care and respect by Juliet Lit. This quiet film documents the incredible perseverance of farmers whose methods and practice have remained unchanged for hundreds of years. As the seasons gently pass we become all too aware that this is maybe the last generation to farm in this way.

SEEDED SHORTS

Animations

Various

6pm

The Bagelry

Join Food for Real at the newest and cutest addition to Liverpool’s culinary scene, the Bagelry, for an evening of animated shorts with a seed-y theme! Films include amazing micoscopic films from unsung British pioneer Mary Field and the silhouette fairytales of Lotte Reiniger. Plus inspired by the Bagelry’s own Kickstarter video, try your hand at dough animation!

Liverpool's new The Bagelry opens at 42 Nelson Street, Liverpool

SEVEN SAMURAI

FEATURE

Akira Kurosawa/Japan/1954/Cert PG/3hrs 27m (plus interval)

7pm

Liverpool Small Cinema

How do you keep the village food crops safe from thieving bandits? You hire seven out of work Samurai to keep the rice harvest secure. This simple plot is the basis for Kurosawa’s epic action tale of honour and duty. For their services the Samurai receive 3 good meals a day; a high price willingly paid by the oppressed villagers. The ripening rice heralds the return of the bandits and a battle of heroic proportions ensues.

(LE SEMEUR) THE SOWER

DOCUMENTARY

Julie Perron/Canada/2013/Cert PG/ 77m

7.30pm

The Brink

Patrice Fortier is an artist-turned-seed dealer who owns the Société des Plantes, an avant-garde farm in southern Quebec. With encyclopaedic knowledge of every cultivar and a deep reverence for the homesteading pioneers before him, Fortier focuses his energies on the heirlooms of the future. A rare and inspiring insight into a truly artistic life of growth and belonging.

Le Semeur won the FFR Best Film Competition 2015

The Brink has been leading the way in promoting awareness by combining fresh healthy food and entertainment, whilst acting as a haven for those affected by alcoholism and addiction.

PARTNER SCREENINGS:

THE HUNGER

FEATURE

Tony Scott/USA/1983/ Cert 18 /97m

9.30pm

FACT

Tickets: £10.50 / £8.50 members / £9.50 concessions

Our partners Picturehouse @ FACT join the film feast with a dish best served chilled: Tony Scott’s sapphic horror starring Catherine Deneuve, Susan Sarandon and the dearly departed David Bowie. Miriam and John have a hunger… for blood and immortality! Screened from 35mm, celluloid fans!

FANTASTIC MR. FOX

FEATURE

Wes Anderson/USA/2009/ Cert PG /84m

Sunday 20th 2pm

Liverpool Small Cinema

Tickets: £5 / £4 concessions. Free workshop from 12.45pm (Booking required)

Wes Anderson’s take on Roald Dahl’s classic is a delight for all the family. Mr. Fox longs for the excitement of his youth as a skilled chicken thief and hatches a plan to get the better of nasty local farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean. Expect awe-inspiring stop-motion animation, delightful characters and hilarious dialogue, as well as a Small Cinema Kids Club creative workshop.

Liverpool Small Cinema in Victoria Street

SUNDAY 20TH MARCH

EQUINOX DAWN BREAKFAST AND FORAGE

GATHERING AND WORKSHOP

6.14 til 10am

Princes Park – whatever the spring weather, come and gather under the big oak, just up from Woodhenge. Devonshire Rd/ Belvedere Rd gate.

No need to book – just turn up!

6.14am - Sun-rise yoga salutations at dawn + tea-making for the extra early birds

7- 8am - Seasonal Breakfast for all; join artists and forest schools practitioner Jim Loftus for pancakes and porridge over the fire

8-9.30am - Spring Forage - join environmentalist Gemma Jerome on a wild food forage for spring leaves, sprouts and shoots

10am Spring Equinox Street Stroll to the Grapes Garden

(Meet at Devonshire Rd/ Belvedere Rd gate of park)

BETTY’S SOULFUL SPRING AFROVEGAN COOK-UP

Workshop

10am – 12 noon

John Archer Hall Kitchen

Join the dynamic Betty Vandy, from the ‘Bettylicious Cooks’ blog, for a vibrant hands-on session, creating a flavoursome, plant-based feast of soulful spring goodness, with a taste of Africa.

www.bettyliciouscooks.com

GRAPES GARDEN FAMILY BRUNCH

Gathering

10am – 12 noon

Grapes Community Food Garden

Spring into Sunday with family food action! Meet the Squash team and get involved in homestead food production; churning, milling, mixing, baking, tasting and sharing. Together we’ll make loads of tasty food. Plus huge bubble-blowing and spring seed-sowing. Babies and breast-feeding mamas most welcome – the solar dome will be turned into your breast-feeding temple!

TABITHA’S ENCHANTED SEEDS

Workshop

10am – 12 noon

John Archer Hall Classroom

and

2-4pm

Slavery Museum

Inspired by Lotte Reiniger’s enchanting animated film, ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’, artist Tabitha Moses invites you to create your own magical seeds. What will they grow in to? You decide!

SOW, GROW, SAVE, SWAP - EVERTON SEEDS

WORKSHOP

10am – 12 noon

The Faith Plot, Everton

Step into spring with the formidable growers of the Faith Plot, run by the Friends of Everton Park. Come and share the fruits of their labours and tap into local knowledge of food growing. Be prepared to plant, scatter, sow, and pot up your own new seed beginnings!

JOURNEY IN TO SPRING

WALK

12-2pm

From the Faith Plot, Everton, L5 to Firefit Hub, Toxteth, L8

Join environmentalist Gemma Jerome for a seasonal foraging walk across the city via Everton Park, St James Gardens and lots of hidden green spaces in between. Gemma will be your guide as you discover and uncover the edible signs of spring. Walk approximately 2.5 miles.

PUBLIC HEALTH WALK

WALK

12.30-2pm

From Victoria Gallery & Museum to Fire Fit Hub, L8

Ashton Street, Liverpool L69 3DR

Led by local public health activist, Robin Ireland (@robinHEG), this walk takes in the many buildings connected to the city’s medical history. Wear waterproofs, sturdy shoes and let us know if you have any mobility issues. Walk approximately 3 miles.

NINA’S SEED EXCHANGE

WORKSHOP

12.30-2.30pm

John Archer Hall Classroom

Artist Nina Edge has grown and collected thousands of seeds as a starting point for pictures, garden planning and scatter bombing. Come and make some artwork and choose some seeds to take away.

CLAUDIA’S SEASONAL SPRING COOKING WORKSHOP

WORKSHOP

12.30-2.30pm

John Archer Hall Kitchen

Join cook Claudia Myles, of the Everyman Bistro, Pen Factory and Garden Bakery, for the first of a series of seasonal cooking workshops. Prepare to transform seeds and fresh spring veg into delicious dishes.

SOW, GROW, SAVE, SWAP - TOXTETH SEEDS

WORKSHOP

Grapes Community Food Garden

12.30-2.30pm

Join the steadfast growers of the Grapes Garden as they celebrate the new season.Come and enjoy locally grown produce and find out more about seed saving. Be prepared to get your hands dirty as we plant and sow together, ready for spring to begin.

LET’S DANCE... DISCOSCOUSE

COOKING SESSION + LUNCH

Fire Fit Hub

12 midday – for Disco Scouse volunteer cooks!

2.30-3.30pm – Disco Scouse Sunday lunchtime! Eat up!

Back by popular demand, this celebratory music-fuelled vegetable mash-up combines cooking, disco and awareness of food waste all under one big glitter ball. This time it’s a David Bowie themed-disco - so get your stardust fa-fa-fa fashion on! Sign up to be a volunteer cook and help transform ingredients into a big tasty communal lunch of tasty veggie scouse or just sashay your way down to Fire-fit Hub and join us for lunch.

To register as a Disco Scouse cook – contact Lisa on 0151 7077897 or lisa@squashnutrition.org

Event sponsored by Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority and Love Food, Hate Waste

COMMUNITY SHOP TALK

Conversation

John Archer Hall

3.30-4.30pm

At FFR 2013, we examined the impact and influence of supermarkets on our shopping and eating habits. Since then Squash Nutrition have been developing plans for a community food shop to be launched this year! With guest Denise McAvoy of Village Greens Community Shop, Prestwich and members of the Toxteth Food Central Design Team, artist Nina Edge will chair a lively discussion on the philosophy, ethics and practicalities of setting up a community food store.

TOXTETH FOOD CENTRAL

Conversation

John Archer Hall

4.30-5.30pm

Toxteth Food Central is an exciting community food hub; an eco-building on Windsor Street, TFC will house an urban food shop, a community kitchen and a plentiful produce garden! Come along for a cuppa and to meet the community design team and architect Marianne Heaslip from URBED. www.urbed.com

TOXTETH FOOD CENTRAL, RITE OF SPRING

ACTION

Toxteth Food Central site

5.30pm

Last October there was a devastating fire at the Toxteth Food Central site, just 8 weeks before completion. Join us for this short blessing of the site before we start rebuilding once again.

Launch of Constellations new cafe and bar in the Baltic Triangle

EQUINOX AFTERGLOW DANCE PARTY

EVENT

Constellations

6.26pm (sunset) till late

Join us for end of festival fire, food and films as we reminisce, plan, eat and dance with fruitful and veggie tunes supplied by DJ Bryan Digs.