The records of the Sugar Association show an orchestrated campaign to counter any scientific studies concluding that sugar is dangerous.Īs in so many film noir tales, the central twist is the notion of a corporate conspiracy, shady corporations trying to hide nefarious doings from the public. She discovered 1,500 pages of internal sugar-industry documents that had been found at the offices of the Great Western Sugar Company, after it went out of business in Colorado in 1976. The whodunit gets even more intriguing about halfway through when Denver dentist Cristin Kearns shows up onscreen. This is the manifestation of a societal breakdown.” To experience the expository aspect, you have to watch the English version. It is about the yearly journey of penguins in search of breeding grounds up to when they find a mate and start a family, eventually. He goes on to up the stakes even further, suggesting “It’s not just obese kids. March of the Penguins (2005) Directed by Luc Jacquet, this French documentary has a captivating story. “It’s the biggest epidemic in the history of the world,” he says at one point. Pediatric endocrinologist Robert Lustig, one of the main figures in the film, is a sort of anti-sugar evangelist. The key difference is that, as author Gary Taubes points out, “We’re talking about a substance that makes a lot of people happy.” Much is made of the notion that maybe sugar is the new tobacco - in other words, an industry that’s producing something that is bad for our health. Try refreshing your browser, or tap here to see other videos from our team. It doesn’t break any new ground in terms of documentary style - it’s all about starting a conversation on a topic that is of interest to everyone. A couple of apologists for the big sugar companies are included, but the main thrust of almost every interview is to underline either the nefarious effects of over-consumption of sugar and/or the aggressive manoeuvres of the sugar titans to counter any negative reports about sugar.
The great thing about this feature doc is its point-of-view filmmaking, a refreshing break from the bland TV-news approach. The sleuth here is sniffing around trying to figure out what is causing many of our health problems today, and writer Roxana Spicer and director Michèle Hozer lay the blame squarely on the shoulders of the sugar industry. Think of Sugar Coated as a documentary masquerading as a detective flick - or vice versa. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt.