About movie

Eating Cultures

Original title Eating Cultures

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This is a documentary journey through three foreign national restaurants in London (Eritrean, Pakistani and Argentinian). Restaurant staff and customers share their experiences of working and eating in the restaurants as the filmmaker examines how »authentic« is understood and how culinary worlds are adapted for a multicultural London audience. The restaurant staff and the filmmaker engage in storytelling across cultural boundaries, yet the stories are charged with the accurate representation of real life and expectations of authenticity. The film explores the intricacies of »mediating worlds« alongside the sensory-rich, somewhat touristic experience of »eating cultures«.

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Author/s Holly Giesman

Holly Giesman completed her PhD within the Department of Media, Culture and Language at the University of Roehampton in London in April 2014. She produced the film Eating Cultures as part of her practice-based PhD research. Guided by underlying interests in cross-cultural and ethnographic filmmaking, documentary representation and notions of distinctions between documentary and fiction—her doctoral work employed reflexive and collaborative documentary filmmaking to reflect on cross-cultural encounter and the concept of authenticity. Before moving to London to begin her doctoral research, she completed an MA at Michigan State University, where she specialized in documentary film. In 2004, she co-produced and edited the film Inside Jazz: Everybody’s Welcome on the culture of jazz music. Holly has also worked as a producer/director in US public television and radio as well as in new and mixed media for a variety of creative, corporate and educational applications.

Research Holly Giesman
Photography Holly Giesman, Juan Maza Calleja, Tim Band, Luis Rosero
Sound Luis Rosero, Rashid Hussain, Mariangeles Toscanelli
Editing Holly Giesman