Send This Guy Your Burger Visions: Hamburger America Director George Motz –Shown in Front of Hackensack, N.J.’s Famous White Manna–Also Co-Directs NYC’s Summer Film Fest. Photo courtesy NYC Food Film Festival.
Like of many of you Edible readers out there, I suspect, I’ve always obsessed about food, whether it was in the context of dinner, religion, cultural commodity, politics, comedy or art. So naturally when as an undergrad I was taking an old-fashioned 16mm film class, I made a movie about burgers. I cast my chubby, long-haired boyfriend at the time as the cook, mainly because he didn’t know how to cook. And then I filmed him making a burger.
It was very grainy and very amateur on all counts. I was awkwardly holding my camera, he was clumsily frying up a giant patty in a cast iron skillet, smashing it down in the pan (that’s a no-no) sliding it shakily onto a giant bun, then topping it with lettuce, tomato and onion and taking a sloppy bite as “It’s Only Love” by ZZ Top played in the background–the sole soundtrack.
Sadly I lost my meaty masterpiece many burgers ago, but if you’ve got some work of art about asparagus or turnip farmers or shopping carts as pop-up campers or cooks who follow 100-year-old recipes, the Fourth Annual NYC Food Festival is accepting applications for this year’s food film showcase, which will run from June 23rd through the 27th, mainly at Water Taxi Beach. You have until March 31st, whether you shoot with film or with Flip.
In past years the movies–short, long, professional, amateur–have been outstanding, but I also like it because it’s a project from two dudes who love burgers, too: Harry Hawk, who sells plenty fine patties at Water Taxi Beach, and George Motz, who makes movies himself, including the documentary Hamburger America. (And who Edible also beat on The Mind Kitchen, the new Heritage Radio Network gameshow.)
Meanwhile, as we wait for more details on what will make it into this year’s festival–hopefully there’ll be an Edible component, though it’s still in the works–we can dream of co-ed burger creations and listen to “It’s Only Love,” courtesy ZZ Top.
