DIRECTOR: Damon Gameau | Australia | 2014 | 90min
Damon Gameau is on a mission. With his first child expected, he’s going to use his own body to test what could be the greatest danger to his young family’s healthy future: Sugar. Swearing to a two-month diet of only hidden sugars, those secreted away in supposedly ‘healthy’ foods, Gameau assembles a crack team to monitor the effect on his body and mind, travelling from Australia to the sugar-capitals of the USA, along with cameo appearances from Stephen Fry and Hugh Jackman. Delivering it’s bitter-pill message in a glittering, candied wrapper, That Sugar Film is as funny as it’s frightening, promising to change the way you think about what you buy, eat and believe what it means to be healthy, whether you have a sweet tooth or not.
Screenings at Encounters 2015
CT: Mon 8 8.30pm Labia | Tue 9 6.30pm CN V&A | Sat 13 2.30pm Labia | Sat 13 5.30pm CN V&A PD | Sun 14 2.30pm Labia
Jozi: Thu 11 6.30pm CN Rosebank | Sun 14 8pm CN Rosebank
Panel Discussion
Sat 13 June, 5:30pm, V&A Cinema Nouveau
Panellists:
- Professor Tim Noakes (The Real Meal Revolution).
- Simon Vilakazi of the Economic Justice Network.
- Leonie Joubert (The Hungry Season: Feeding Southern Africa’s Cities)
In That Sugar Film, Australian actor Damon Gameau uses his own body to experiment with the dangers of hidden sugars, travelling from Aboriginal communities to the soft-drink-addicted Appalachias to high-tech food chemistry labs. In this post-screening discussion, Professor Tim Noakes, science writer Leonie Joubert and Simon Vilakazi of the Economic Justice Network investigate the reality of the sugar treat for South Africans, especially those made vulnerable by low incomes and related, unhealthy diets.