movies

The Fruit Hunters + SHORT

The rise of monoculture in the fruit industry brought prosperity and groaning supermarket shelves. Yet every banana, apple and kiwi tastes the same. The Fruit Hunters follows the adventures who travel to the furthest corners of the earth in search of exotic fruits and flavours – to taste them and preserve them for posterity.

'Is it strange that I get excited about fruit?' narrator Adam Gollner wonders in the opening seconds of The Fruit Hunters, as close-ups of curvaceous fruits fill the screen. 'They overwhelm my senses and wait until I devour them.'

Gollner wrote the book on which Yung Chang based his documentary. The film and book revolve around the same kind of fruit fanatics who congregate in clubs like the Rare Fruits Council; people who are obsessed by the lure of exotic fruit varieties and travel to the other side of the world to taste a rare durian; or people like actor Bill Pullman who bid hundreds of dollars at a fruit auction for a bowl of unusual mangoes.

Filled with beautiful shots of the most voluptuous – almost sensual – fruit, The Fruit Hunters warns of the dangers of monoculture in fruit production. The supermarket banana, for example, is in danger of extinction. Monoculture not only deprives the world of fruit varieties, but also consumers of exotic flavours that are currently reserved for the fruit fetishists in this documentary.

The delight on Bill Pullman's face as he bites into his white sapote ice cream underscores the necessity of these fruit fanatics' mission: to ensure that our taste buds are not deprived forever of these special fruit varieties.

Please note: This documentary is preceded by an FFF SHORT, but due to technical circumstances it will not be shown at the screening in Kriterion...

"Orange" Ô Desespoir
Animation I John Banana | France | 2011 I 4 min | no dialogue

Oranges are some of the toughest fruits. They sit sullenly in their thick skins, staring straight ahead. This young orange wants adventure. He prefers to swing with the pineapples on the other side of the shop - with far-reaching consequences...