RED CHEF REVIVAL

RED CHEF REVIVAL

    Price: $310.00

    Code: 2613

    Directed by Danny Berish
    2019, 120 minutes (6 episodes, 20 min. each)
    Purchase $310
    Optional closed captions 

    A long-neglected culinary tradition, Indigenous cuisine is being reclaimed and reinvented by a new guard of chefs from across Canada. Red Chef Revival is a unique and intimate documentary that follows three trailblazing chefs on a cross country journey--from First Nations communities from Northwest Territories to British Columbia--to redefine and reclaim Indigenous cuisine.

    Bringing pre-colonial ingredients to the modern table, Six Nations chef and Top Chef finalist Rich Francis is decolonizing Canadian cuisine, one dish at a time. New York Times featured Algonquin chef Cezin Nottaway use ancestral methods learned by her grandmothers' but with a modern twist. Chopped Canada finalist Shane Chartrand, who didn't discover his Enoch Cree heritage until his 20's, is using his passion for food to heal and tell his story. Through these three chefs, filmmakers Danny Berish and Ryan Mah explore the central concerns of indigenous communities, such as language revitalization, mental health and substance abuse.


    Red Chef Revival features ingredients you won't find in any cookbooks, like bison heart, beaver tail, moose nose, seal and cougar, and goes beyond dishes such as frybread and bannock. Using food as their access point, these chefs discover a new path to reconciliation. 

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    Episode 1 - Osoyoos: Coming to grips with his inner demons, host Rich Francis travels to what he calls the Hollywood of Indigenous Reservations, Osoyoos, to cook with an ingredient he’s never used before, cougar.


    Episode 2 - Fort McMurray: In the aftermath of a massive wildfire in 2016, host Cezin Nottaway finds a deep connection between food and healing.  Combining her signature bush cooking style with a traditional beaver tail recipe.

    Episode 3 - Prince Rupert: Host Shane Chartrand is at the iconic North Pacific Cannery, where Chinese, Indigenous and Japanese communities converged.  Shane cooks a seal meat stew, gets a hand poked tattoo and prepares a salmon tasters menu.

    Episode 4 - Maskwacis: Following an epidemic of suicides and gun violence, youth of Maskwacis are re-writing their future. Host Rich Francis finds new meaning to reconciliation by cooking moose nose ragù and moose leg salad for the kids


    Episode 5 - Blood tribe: Host Shane Chartrand visits the Blood Tribe to cook a bison heart over an open fire. Combining rare zhylem syrup harvested from balsam poplar trees he finds new meaning in Indigenous cuisine.


    Episode 6 - Nemiah Valley: An annual deadly horse race brings host Cezin Nottaway to Nemiah Valley in British Columbia. Struggling with her own insecurities, she finds a new sense of pride while learning to pit cook a deer and fire roast a salmon.




    Subjects & Collections



    Festivals & Awards

    HotDocs 2019 - Official Selection
    Native Spirit Film Festival 2019 - Official Selection
    Georgia Documentary Film Festival 2019 - Official Selection
    American Indian Film Festival 2019 - Official Selection



    Further Reading

    The New York Times - An Algonquin Chef Fights to Restore Indigenous Cuisine



    Trailer


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