Fed Up at DVinfo.net

Al Bergstein · May 24th, 2014, 08:38 AM

Watched "Fed Up" last night at the movies, with a small crowd, of mixed ages. While the doc is an important look at the obesity epidemic, it's running time of about 92 minutes is way too long. It plays like a typical TV documentary with way too many 'experts' telling us how terrible the situation is. There is a great story line of obese kids basically begging for help, and their clueless parents who can't even give up chocolate to save their children (really!). This is a good example of a film that could be used in film school to assign people the task of editing it to 60 minutes. It would be much better film and likely would be watched all the way through, by those that need it the most. The real messages of hope and what to do, that come at the end of the film, are likely to be tuned out by the audience long before they get there. The story of the many chefs and people trying to make a difference, like Jamie Oliver, are so quickly skimmed over you would never know that they have a significant and real interest in helping these kids out.

All in all, it seems like a doc done by someone like Katie C. a standard television like production, which of course it is. As an example of a what I think is a better way to approach this, is the fabulous "Inside Job" and other 'storyline' based docs.

Anyone see it that thought differently?

May 24th, 2014, 08:38 AM	#1
Al Bergstein Major Player Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Port Townsend, WA Posts: 456	Fed Up Watched "Fed Up" last night at the movies, with a small crowd, of mixed ages. While the doc is an important look at the obesity epidemic, it's running time of about 92 minutes is way too long. It plays like a typical TV documentary with way too many 'experts' telling us how terrible the situation is. There is a great story line of obese kids basically begging for help, and their clueless parents who can't even give up chocolate to save their children (really!). This is a good example of a film that could be used in film school to assign people the task of editing it to 60 minutes. It would be much better film and likely would be watched all the way through, by those that need it the most. The real messages of hope and what to do, that come at the end of the film, are likely to be tuned out by the audience long before they get there. The story of the many chefs and people trying to make a difference, like Jamie Oliver, are so quickly skimmed over you would never know that they have a significant and real interest in helping these kids out. All in all, it seems like a doc done by someone like Katie C. a standard television like production, which of course it is. As an example of a what I think is a better way to approach this, is the fabulous "Inside Job" and other 'storyline' based docs. Anyone see it that thought differently? __________________ Al Upper left hand corner of the map