GMO OMG is a documentary on the contemporary debate over genetically modified food that will make you LOL and say WTF.
Srsly!!!!!
For me"”always a fan of meat, potatoes, and hippie bashing"”this film was a wakeup call. For those of you who may have heard some people in your news feed bitch about something called Monsanto, but whose knowledge stops there, this is the perfect film to see as an introduction to the debate over food, technology, and the secret corn-fueled copulating between big government and big agriculture.
The film is framed as Jeremy Seifert's honest attempt as a concerned dad to figure out what food is safe and healthy to feed his kids, whose adorable faces are featured"¦regularly throughout the movie. Regular enough to make you wonder whether it's too much, but not regular enough for those doubts to outweigh the OMG cuteness factor.
Anyway, after hearing about these things called GMOs (genetically modified organisms), he hops in a van with a camera crew to figure out whether these mysterious acronyms are kosher or not (spoiler: he doesn't think so).
Along the way he talks to farmers, scientists, family members, activists, and others. Unfortunately, not one representative of the big biochemical engineering companies or the scientists who support them agreed to be interviewed for the film.
Seifert even offered one prominent pro GMO scientist who was on the fence about doing an interview complete veto power over the final product of the interview, something seldom done in documentaries"”but to no avail. The lack of complete representation of the opposing viewpoint hurts the documentary, but at least it seems like the filmmakers did their best to sit down with the opposition.
The film is beautiful. It manages moments of poignancy without your standard "okay, this is going to be in slow motion now over some experimental sounds" moves. It's Jeremy Seifert's second outing as director. He made waves with his 2010 short Dive!, which was about dumpster diving and the related wasteful practices of American grocery stores. GMO OMG is his first feature, and it won't disappoint.
However, the film probably holds most attraction for newbies"”for environmentalist veterans, this is a film to show your apolitical, centrist friends and family members. If you're up to date on the issue, it may be worth it to see the harmful effects of GMOs put into images"”omg RAT TUMORS omg"”but keep in mind that you won't be getting new info, just stuff you already know told in a fun way. But again, there are cute kids in it.
The film's pacing is a bit off"”expect to be a bit frustrated at the amount of time it takes for them to actually start answering the question "are GMO's unhealthy?"
The other caveat, a caveat worth adding with any political documentary, is that this film is only good as a starting point for a discussion. Seeing it did make me want to only eat kale for the rest of my life"”but it's important to approach this kind of stuff with caution. No documentarian is perfectly neutral.
Those two things being said, this is definitely worth a look"”perfect for a view on Netflix.
