This important documentary about milk screened at the 2012 New Hampshire Film Festival in Portsmouth, NH. The first thing I want to say is that I loved Sebastian Howard and Mark Westberg's editing. In at least two places they spliced their subjects into sound bites and had them all contradicting each other in staccato segments, sometimes as short as one word, "Yes!" or "No!" and let the audience see in summary just how controversial the simple subject of milk really is. With so much lackluster editing in film, I was delighted to see someone getting creative in their story telling and it reminded me of similar devices used in the novels of Ernest Hemingway and Raymond Chandler where the key images are summarized in a montage of memory at the end of the book. The subject of the film was how healthy is milk and Howard interviewed some of the leading industry, medical, scientific, and nutrition authorities in North America, yes including Canada, on this topic. As a person who does not drink plain milk, raw or pasteurized, I was happy to see someone investigating this health issue in a balanced way that tells both sides of the story. I also wished I could hear more on the topic of how cultures and bacteria change the properties of milk when it comes in the form of various cheeses and yogurt and how experts view the health impact of these foods as opposed to plain milk. What I did not expect in the film was the moving portrait of a Canadian farmer producing raw milk who was persecuted and later exonerated by the Canadian government and his inspiring cry for freedom to make, drink and sell raw milk. In his words, "Politically, food is a weapon". Wow! And that was just the beginning. This film is well worth seeing for anyone who is interested in the political and health issues related to the production of food and milk.
Review of Milk?
