Michael Pollan's Food Rules

Describe your idea and concept of your work in relation to the festival outlines:

Ideas are the place from which everything grows. At first, they are nothing but figments of the imagination, yet with persistence, courage and dedication, they can go out into the world and make change. When Michael Pollan asks 'can organic feed the world?', that is a (dangerous) idea that holds power. It has the power to sink into people's consciousness, and through that consciousness, affect change. Marija Jacimovic and I wanted to promote that message in a way that we believed would captivate people's imaginations as to what is possible.

What kind of communication approach do you use?

Marija Jacimovic and I chose to use a table-top stop-motion technique. We decided on a clean and simple approach to maximise the effect (as well as making it as DIY as possible—it was shot on our kitchen table). The concept from the very start was to use food as props/characters in the film as food is so visually interesting and complex, thereby implicitly bringing people's attention back to that fact.

What are in your opinion concrete benefits to the society because of your communication?

The power of "Michael Pollan's Food Rules" is that through its simplicity it can make people pause for a second and reflect on their perceptions in relation to food: where does food come from? who is producing that food? why are they producing it and distributing it in such a way? That is the only real effective power—the power to make people reconsider what/how they understand their environment. It is the tap on the shoulder that may sow the seeds of a new collective vision in relation to the food industry.

What did you personally learn from creating your submitted work?

"Michael Pollan's Food Rules" was both Marija Jacimovic's and mine first directed animated film. It was, and still is, a huge learning experience in the different stages of production. We started with a vision but not much practical experience and went ahead with it; borrowing equipment and sacrificing our kitchen table for a month, we relished the challenge to bring the film out into the world for others to see.

Why is your work, GOOD communication WORK?

Simple and effective. From the start it was crucial for us to adhere to those two points. We knew how hard it is to get people's attention, hence the need for a simple, clean, appealing visual style. Secondly, given that Michael Pollan's talk is of an educational nature (it was taken from an RSA talk), the film had to be effective. Is it visually communicating in the best possible way what is being said? is a question we asked ourselves a million times.

Where and how do you intent do implement your work?

We have been fortunate enough to have "Michael Pollan's Food Rules" shown around the world: it has been shared extensively on the internet (even Michael Pollan shared it on Twitter and website) and it has been screened at many international festivals. By eschewing tradition, we uploaded the film online from the beginning and always promoted its sharing. (We even have had teachers asking to show the film to students, something we were delighted about). To this day, we continue to seek suitable forums in which to share it.

Did your intervention had an effect on other Media. If yes, describe the effect? (Has other media reported on it- how? Were you able to change other media with your work- how?)

Given the buzz around the film when it was released, the mainstream press took an interest. Articles about it were written on the Huffington Post, on The Atlantic, and on various food related websites. We even received some airtime on Serbian national television in the context of a program about food. This was a particularly interesting experience as topics to do with organic food culture is relatively new and barely overtly discussed in the country. Given that the Serbian economy is heavily dependent of agriculture on the one hand yet on the other market pressures are driving that agriculture in certain directions, this addition (albeit a drop in the ocean) to the debate is crucial.