Ingredients

Sporting the tag-line, “The Local Food Movement Takes Root,” Ingredients is another in the growing number of documentaries promoting the eating of locally produced food from small-scale farmers. Like other titles in this category (such as Food, Inc. and Fresh), writer-director Robert Bates' documentary is lushly filmed, with plenty of lovely shots of dew-covered plants, but it also emphasizes the positive role of restaurateurs in encouraging local production, beginning in the 1970s with the Frenchman Jean-Louis Palladin, who launched several trendsetting restaurants in the U.S., and American food icon Alice Waters, who founded Chez Panisse in Berkeley, CA. Narrated by Bebe Neuwirth, the film's assorted interviewees range from growers and chefs in Oregon to biodynamic farmers in upstate New York. DVD extras include a conversation with Waters, a discussion of the “slow food” movement, and the featurette “Four Seasonal Stories.” A beautiful, thoughtful documentary that delivers a largely upbeat message rather than a gloom-and-doom diatribe, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Gardner)