VIFF review: First We Eat follows family's year as locavores in the Great White North
Eating local in the Yukon is a test of patience with nourishing rewards
The Crockers’ year of eating nothing but local food in the Yukon unfolds in First We Eat.
Streams September 24 to October 7 as part of the Vancouver International Film Festival, via VIFF.org.
The eat-local movement keeps getting stronger, but of all the places to commit to a year of feeding your family nothing but food from nearby, few are as challenging as Dawson City, Yukon.
Susan Crocker finds out just how difficult—but ultimately doable—it is, documenting the journey she takes her husband and three resistant school-aged kids along in First We Eat. A former family doctor like her spouse, Crocker got a wakeup call a few years ago when the only road into the traditional territory of the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in was closed by a landslide, and supermarket shelves began to be bare within 48 hours. Most grocery stores around the world, in fact, only stock three to five days of food. (The film was shot pre-COVID-19, but just think back to earlier this year when flour was scarce to get an idea of how reliant most of us are on goods from afar.)
At the end of the family’s first day of no salt, sugar, caffeine, chocolate, and so many other foods most of us take for granted, Crocker is exhausted. By day three, she’s in tears. Doing things like drying coltsfoot for salt, juicing rhubarb for sauerkraut, and tapping birch trees for water is time-consuming and tiring.
Industrious and patient, Crocker never wavers (though her remarkably accommodating kids are allowed to eat food from the outside world when they’re not at home). She introduces viewers to local farmers, including a family that grows more than 60 varieties of apples, a former fashion designer who raises chickens, Indigenous neighbours who gift her fresh salmon eggs, and the operators of the northernmost dairy in the western hemisphere, who put the names of their beloved cows on the milk and cheese they contributed to.
Butchering is a family affair, Crocker develops newfound respect for celery, and their end-of-year celebration shows how food can unite community. (We love the appearance of bhangra dancer Gurdeep Pandher, too.) First We Eat will appeal not only to conscientious consumers but nature lovers, too, with gorgeous scenery from the Land of the Midnight Sun.
The film clocks in at about an hour and 40 minutes, so you might want to grab a snack before settling in—just maybe ask yourself if you know where it came from.
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