FILM REVIEW

GMO OMG

Reviewed by Donna Strong

GMO OMG is the very well-named second film from Director Jeremy Seifert. A long awaited piece, his film makes some poignant points for his audience to ponder about the state of American food. One of the key strengths of this very personal film is how it bursts the bubble on our American belief that we have ‘food safety,’ or mainstream food will make us healthier and happier. As families we are still in an American apple pie trance that if something tastes yummy, it has to be good to eat.

Seifert’s film risks a close-up view of his own family making choices based on taste like we all do everyday. Albeit it is not surprising that young children will choose a sweet regardless, it is a shot of his wife Jen looking at her children and their tasty funnel cakes that are likely laced with GMO ingredients that pierces their fond exchanges about whether they should eat these types of ‘food.’

Seifert contrasts beautiful visual impressions of his three young children with startling statistics about the decrease of biodiversity and the rising levels of poison to which we’re all exposed. The film demonstrates how corporate agriculture has encroached upon our shared common heritage — the sacred basic code for renewing life that is stored in seeds.

He is on a sincere quest with his seven year-old seed-saving son named Finn to find answers that are very important as both a father and a citizen. Through lovely cinematic vignettes, Seifert’s GMO OMG reminds us of the rightful return to a world where real food is a healthy pleasure in life, worthy of the celebration it’s been for ages.

This film is a call to wake up and care enough to make choices that promote much needed change in our food system. It illuminates a central point that the reviewer has been digesting for some time; that as a society, our current food choices are more complicated and have far greater repercussions than we have been prepared to comprehend, let alone handle. It is more than shocking to realize how far we have veered off course, but perhaps it is a necessary part of the current call to wake up to some stark realities.