Showing @ Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Sun 21 Apr only

Stefano Sardo / Itlay / 2013 / 74 min

With the horrors of horse meat still fresh in the mind, it’s clear we need a sea change in terms of how we produce and consume food. Slow Food Story chronicles the 25-year rise of a movement that aims to save the planet through the pleasures of good food. Slow Food was conceived by larger-than-life Carlin Petrini amidst surprisingly convoluted beginnings. Although Slow Food focuses on the sensual pleasure of good food, the footage of Petrini clowning, preaching, and singing indicates that this movement is about so much more. Petrini is obviously a man who enjoys all the pleasures life has to offer and has a gift for conveying this enthusiasm. Food has merely proven to be the most obvious vehicle to drive his agenda forward.

“You can’t start a revolution without politics” says one of Calin’s contemporaries, and Slow Food Story demonstrates that while this may be a gastronomic movement, it is above all a political statement. Petrini’s youth was spent as a left-wing activist agitating against the “Catho-Communist” culture of late 20th century Italy, and the concept of Slow Food evolved naturally from these beginnings. Petrini’s unique perspective on globalisation and conviction that a respect for the past can exist alongside progress are both central to the movement.

This affectionate documentary is necessarily political and provocative but still thoroughly infused with Petrini’s playfulness, from the animated links to the duet between Petrini and his best friend and narrator Azio Citi which plays over the closing credits. This one-off screening was further enhanced by a short Q&A with Slow Food Edinburgh leader and graduate of Petrini’s University of Gastronomic Sciences Charlotte Maberly, and co-owner of Whitmuir Organic Farm (soon to be Scotland’s first community-run farm) Heather Anderson, who end with a timely reminder that we all make an important political decision three times every day.

Find out more at slowfoodstory.com