FILM REVIEW: GMO OMG

A scene from GMO OMG.

Corn-you-and-dystopia

By Miranda Inganni

From the director of DIVE!, Living Off of America’s Waste, Jeremy Seifert’s latest documentary, GMO OMG, delves into the subject of GMOs, or genetically modified organisms, and how they are affecting our planet, our bodies and our culture.

Available science has made “conventional” farmers (i.e. non-organic farmers) in the US comfortable in their choice to use pesticides and herbicides to make a “safe and abundant” food supply. (Safe and abundant in this context means a food supply that would reduce hunger around the world, but that is obviously not the case.) The companies producing the pesticides and herbicides are the same companies that are producing the GMO seeds: Monsanto, Dow, Bayer, DuPont, etc.  The corn or soy that grows from these seeds becomes, in and of itself, a pesticide. Subsequently, lack of regulation allows these pesticides to be food, or get into our food. 85 percent of all US grown corn is GMO corn, which means that consumers are ingesting a lot of these chemicals.

The impact of GMO farming on small farmers cannot be overlooked, either. If an organic farmer is growing corn, for example, next to a GMO corn field and some of the pollen or seeds from the GMO farm cross-pollinates, or seeds itself, the organic farmer can be sued by the GMO farm due to the fact that the GMO plant had a patent. Sadly this happens far too often. Yet another way that huge corporations can keep independent businesses down.

Additionally, much like how antibiotics have helped to create the superbugs that now exist as a threat to humans and animals, GMOs are assisting in the creation and/or production of super weeds and super insects that are resistant to herbicides and pesticides. To combat these problems, farmers have to use these chemicals in greater abundance. And so the cycle continues ad infinitum.

While the physical effects of GMO products have not been definitively proven to be harmful or not (the companies supporting the research stating that GMOs are not harmful just so happen to be the companies making the GMOs and will not release the raw data for peer review), we do know that these chemicals are in our bodies, our food source and our water system.

Seifert clearly believes strongly that GMOs need to be brought to the public’s attention, but the way he goes about it in GMO OMG feels a bit off. While his family is very photogenic (even if I really did want to reach through the screen and brush the hair out of those boys’ eyes!), they are too much of the focus of the film. The scare tactics he uses – like making his kids don hazmat suits and breathing masks before running through a corn field -- feels like exploitation. And while he may care what cattle on a farm are being fed, he does not seem to care about the condition the cattle are in. When Seifert learns that his beloved mountain fishing ponds are being stocked with fish from fisheries that were being fed pellets made with GMOs, his concern seems to be more about the loss of his pastime than the fish’s health. If Seifert is going to get up in arms about his family eating healthfully and being concerned about the future of the worlds’ agriculture, he might start thinking about sustainable farming, among other things. (And, hey, try vegetarianism!)

Nonetheless, there is a lot of frightening information about GMOs in Seifert’s film and this is an important subject demanding discussion.

FILM REVIEW: CALIFORNIA SOLO

Lachlan MacAldonich (Robert Carlyle) in California Solo.

These days

By John Esther

Lachlan MacAldonich (Robert Carlyle) has seen better days. A brief rocker sensation in the 1990s, Lachlan now spends his days working and managing an organic farm and his nights doing a less-than-organic podcast show called "Flame-Outs," where he talks about young musicians who died too early.

Once a week Lachlan leaves his Antelope Valley and heads south to the Silver Lake farmers market where he charms customers into buying his organic wares at laughably cheap prices. His favorite customer is the oh-so-hipsterly named Beau (Alexia Rasmussen), a sort of humdrum, typical, wannabe actor commonly found throughout Los Angeles. Lachlan is obviously smitten with her, but she has no clue of his affections or, for that matter, is infamous past as a member of the Cranks, the UK's answer to Nirvana.

Perhaps due to the introduction of Beau's beau, Paul (Danny Masterson), or perhaps because his luck is running out, Lachlan goes on another drinking spree that night -- only this time he is pulled over for drunk driving.

Because a drunk driving conviction could get him deported backed to Scotlan, Lachlan makes efforts to reconnect with his Catherine (Kathleen Wilhoite) and their daughter Arianwen (Savannah Lathem), but may be too little to late to save him.

Beyond a very strong performance by Carlyle and supported by some strong supporting performances, notably by Masterson, Wilhoite and Michael Des Barres as the Cranks ex-manager, and a bit of quality dialogue during a few scenes, writer-director Marshall Lewy's California Solo has very little going for it. It is not that the film is bad or boring so much as it is forgettable. It is the kind of film one sees and forgets until coming across it a video store. A fleeing moment of recognition, only to be forgotten, again -- I guess just like Lachlan MacAldonich.