Soul Food Junkies to premiere at NYC’s Lincoln Center

Soul Food Junkies to premiere at NYC’s Lincoln Center
Posted by Wilson Morales

August 27, 2012

The highly anticipated documentary, Soul Food Junkies, by award-winning filmmaker Byron Hurt will screen at the Walter Reade Theater in Lincoln Center (located at 165 W. 65th Street in New York City) on Thursday, August 30, 2012 at 7:00 pm. The public is welcome to see the film in its entirety before its national television premiere on the Emmy award-winning series Independent Lens on PBS. The broadcast is set for January 2013.

Baffled by his dad’s unwillingness to change his traditional soul food diet in the face of a health crisis, Hurt sets out to explore the history and social significance of soul food to black cultural identity and its effect on African American health, good and bad.

Through candid interviews with soul food cooks, historians, and scholars – as well as doctors, family members, and everyday people – Soul Food Junkies blends history, humor, and heartwarming stories to place this culinary tradition under the microscope.

Notables who appear in the film include Will Allen, Michaela angela Davis, Dick Gregory, Jessica Harris, Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, City Council Member Chokwe Lumumba, Esq. (Jackson, MS), Dr. Aletha Maybank, Abdul Hafeez Muhammad (formerly known as Kevin Muhammad), Frederick Douglas Opie, Sonia Sanchez, Leni Sorenson, Bryant Terry, Dr. Rani Whitfield (Tha Hip-Hop Doc), and others.

The documentary also examines the dark side of the American food industry and sheds light on a growing food justice movement that has been born in its wake. Hurt ultimately discovers that the love affair that his dad and his community have with soul food is deep-rooted, complex, and in some tragic cases, deadly.

The event will also feature live performances by internationally acclaimed hip hop duo dead prez (one half of the duo, stic.man, is an ardent, long-time health and fitness advocate). After the film, April R. Silver of AKILA WORKSONGS will introduce a Q&A panel discussion that will be moderated by ImageNation founder Moikgantsi Kgama and include filmmaker Byron Hurt, poet and activist Sonia Sanchez; Aletha Maybank, MD. MPH, Assistant Commissioner of Health at New York City Department of Health; and Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, all of whom appear in the film. The evening will end with a post-reception catered by www.SoulFixins.com.

General Admission: $25 advance/$30 at the door. ImageNation and the Film Society of Lincoln Center members: $20 advance/$25 door. Tickets are available at the Lincoln Center box office, by calling 212.875.5600, and via www.imagenation.us and www.filmlinc.com. For general information, call 212.694.2887.

Byron Hurt is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, published writer, anti-sexist activist, and lecturer. He is also the former host of the Emmy-nominated television show, REEL WORKS with BYRON HURT. Mr. Hurt has been using his craft, his voice, and his writings to broaden and deepen how people think about gender, race, violence, music, and visual media. His most popular documentary to date is Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was later broadcast nationally on the Emmy award-winning PBS series Independent Lens (drawing more than 1.3 million viewers).

Soul Food Junkies made its national premiere in Miami, Florida at the American Black Film Festival (ABFF) where it won the prestigious CNN Best Documentary Award.