Saturday, January 18, 2014

Fruit Hunters (Review)


I just watched this documentary last night, I couldn't pass up what is basically "Fruit Porn" as I am a hardcore fruit junkie.
Having experimented in growing a number of exotic fruit trees & plants in our home from seeds I gathered from the grocery, I was intrigued to see where some of the people featured in this film have taken their passion for the sweet stuff.
Perhaps the most surprising character in the film was Bill Pullman!  Yes, that's right, the president from the movie Independence Day and the guy from Serpent and the Rainbow is a fruitiphile.  In fact he was leading a charge near his home in Hollywood to try and dedicate a green-space as the Hollywoodland Orchard for locals to go and tend to trees and eat of their bounty.
One of the best things about this movie was to see that people are working towards being guardians of biodiversity, trying to cultivate & preserve rare or exotic varieties of fruit around the world.  One couple from Florida has even spent twenty years trying to graft a wild variety of mango onto domestic stocks (thus far to no avail) in hopes to keep from losing it-that's dedication!
This is especially a nice film to watch during our all to cold and dreary winter here as it (at least for me) lifts my spirits a bit looking at the beautiful colours of fruit and the warm climates visited in search of fruits and trees.
The biggest drawback to the film was the somewhat cheesy narration that echoed of bad educational school films from the 70's & 80's.  However, the great cinematography, the humorous characters (particularly from Papaya Tree Nursery) and the fruit itself easily made up for that.
If you're into fruit or just want something to watch that's interesting you can find it on Netflix.

No comments: