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OUR DAILY BREAD
Film by Nikolaus Geyrhalter
Opening in New York on November 24th, 2006
Jury Award, Joris Ivens Competition
2005 Amsterdam International Documentary Festival
A revealing look at the world of industrial food production
In sealed rooms, as sterile as computer microprocessor factories, chicks hatch while being closely monitored. A huge hose sucks salmon out of a fjord. Metal teeth chomp up fields of sunflowers. On mechanized conveyer systems, chickens are cut up and pigs are gutted in seconds, although cows take a little longer.
We’re pleased to announce that OUR DAILY BREAD, which reveals the little-known world of high-tech agriculture, animal husbandry, and industrial food processing, will have its U.S. theatrical premiere on November 24th (the day after Thanksgiving) at Anthology Film Archives in New York City, at 32 Second Avenue. This award-winning documentary will then open in other U.S. cities.
 In a series of visually stunning, continuously tracking, wide-screen images that seem right out of a science-fiction movie, OUR DAILY BREAD shows us where food is cultivated and processed: surreal landscapes optimized for agricultural machinery, clean rooms in cool industrial buildings designed for maximum efficiency, and elaborate machines that operate on a ‘disassembly line’ basis.
There’s little space for humans here. They almost seem like flaws in this system: undersized and vulnerable, though they adapt as best they can, with chemical suits, respirators, ear protectors, and helmets. They do the jobs for which machines have not yet been invented.
 Dispensing entirely with explanatory commentary or ‘talking-head’ interviews, OUR DAILY BREAD unfolds on the screen like a disturbing dream: an endlessly fascinating flow of images, an insistent gaze, accompanied only by the persistent industrial soundtrack—whirring, clattering, booming, slurping—of the ingenious marvels of mechanization employed by agri-business.
While this remarkable documentary will engender fascination, awe and even shock amongst viewers, OUR DAILY BREAD simply aims to show the industrial production of food as a reflection of our society’s values: plenty of everything, made as quickly and as efficiently as modern technology permits.
OUR DAILY BREAD is the latest film from award-winning documentary filmmaker Nikolaus Geyrhalter, whose previous films, such as ELSEWHERE (2001) and PRIPYAT (1999), are noteworthy for their revelation of rarely-seen landscapes and natural vistas.
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