Interview - The Future of Food

Deborah Koons Garcia fell in love with filmmaking when she first picked up a Bolex while a student at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1970. She went on to receive a Master of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her educational series All About Babies, narrated by Jane Alexander, won a Cine Golden Eagle and a Gold Medal from the John Muir Medical Film Festival, among other awards. Her feature film, Poco Loco, "finds its groove in gentle romantic fantasy" according to Variety, and won awards at the Philadelphia, Rivertown and Orlando Film Festivals. She was the instigator and chief Creative Consultant for Grateful Dawg, a documentary about the musical friendship between her husband Jerry Garcia and David Grisman. Grateful Dawg premiered at the Telluride Film Festival and went on to a lively run in film festivals, in theaters and on television. The Future of Food was shown over a dozen times as a work in progress in Mendocino County, California before the March 2004 election and was the primary element in passing Measure H which bans the planting of genetically engineered crops in the county. It is the first time U.S. citizens have voted on this very important issue. All the people who worked on The Future of Food are proud that our efforts have had a real impact in the real world.