Natural Resistance

The attitude of filmmaker Jonathan Nossiter toward globalization of the wine industry and the standardization of its products has already been made abundantly clear in both his feature documentary Mondovino (VL Online-9/05) and his identically-named 10-part TV series follow-up (VL-3/10). Nossiter takes up the struggle anew here, shifting his focus in order to decry governmental policies, particularly regulations coming from the European Union that seem designed to drive artisanal winemakers (and cheese producers) out of business. Nossiter makes his argument largely through conversations with growers who try to continue to follow traditional techniques in four regions of Italy. The most memorable is certainly Stefano Bellotti, a radical Piedmont farmer who discourses learnedly on history and science while also taking up a shovel to show the soil differences between his neighbor's vineyards and his own. Other interviewees include Giovanna Tiezzi and Stefano Borsa, who operate a winery from a converted Tuscan monastery; Corrado Dottori and Valerio Bochi, who have retreated from Milan to their grandfather's farm in the Marches; and Elena Pantaleoni, a former librarian now tending vineyards on her father's land in Emilia. All offer wry commentary on having to contend with bureaucratic interference, while Nossiter intersperses clips from classic films and animated segments to add variety. Sure to appeal to oenophiles, this is recommended. (F. Swietek)