Pachamama Alliance of Oregon

* * * Deborah Koons Garcia, Filmmaker * * *

A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, filmmaker Deborah Koons Garcia has called California home for over thirty years. Her film production company, Lily Films, is located in Mill Valley, California just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. Her most recent film, The Future of Food, examines alarming issues surrounding the rapidly increasing corporate domination of our food supply. It is the first major film to cover the history and technology of genetic engineering and the complex implications of untested genetically engineered crops on the environment and unlabelled foods on consumers. Garcia's other film credits include All About Babies, Poco Loco and Grateful Dawg, a documentary featuring her late husband, Jerry Garcia, of the Grateful Dead.

The Road to Filmmaking

A highly formative experience occurred at age fifteen that would later influence The Future of Food. Garcia won first place at the Cincinnati Engineering Society Science Fair for her foray into the world of plant manipulation with her experiment, "Polyploidy in Plants." In genetics, polyploids possess multiple sets of chromosomes where the normal number is two sets. Seed and plant breeders induce this process by treating seeds and plants with chemicals or radiation in order to develop mutations. From her two resulting specimens, one set untreated and healthy, and the other, large, thick and deformed, Garcia's instinctual revulsion surfaced. "I could see at fifteen -- I would eat this food from these plants, but those I would not eat." She thought to herself, "This is weird. I am going to keep up with what goes on in genetics because if I can do this in my bedroom, what will scientists do in the future? What will happen to people who eat this kind of food?"

As a student at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Garcia fell in love with filmmaking when she first picked up a Bolex. She was intrigued by film's ability to convey powerful ideas and imagery. By the time she graduated from college she had become a vegetarian and begun to educate herself about how food is grown. She knew that someday she would explore her interest in agriculture and food policy through film. In 1974, Garcia moved to the Bay Area and later received a Masters of Fine Arts at the San Francisco Art Institute.

Garcia's original film company was Signs of Life, which she started in 1984. Over the course of the next fifteen years, she produced films under Signs of Life, including Poco Loco, a much-admired feature film that won awards at the Philadelphia, Rivertown and Central Florida Film Festivals. Her powerful educational documentary series, All About Babies, narrated by Jane Alexander, won several awards, among them a Cine Golden Eagle and a Gold Medal from the John Muir Medical Film Festival. Garcia was the instigator and chief Creative Consultant for Grateful Dawg, a documentary about the musical friendship between her husband, Jerry Garcia, and David Grisman. In 2000, Garcia started Lily Films, choosing the name of a plant with a big, showy flower to evoke the vibrant and thought-provoking films she wanted to create. The Future of Food is Garcia's first major film under Lily Films.

Garcia completed The Future of Food in July 2004 after three years of intense work. Initially, she envisioned a film on pesticide use, but her research led her to more alarming global issues surrounding genetically modified crops -- their uncertain and potentially disastrous effects on human health and the environment; the ethics of gene patenting; and corporate control of the food supply by companies like Monsanto, an agricultural biotechnology conglomerate and frontrunner in the use of genetic engineering.

Garcia realized film would be an excellent way to inform people about these complex issues. She is most proud of the film because it has inspired citizens all over the world. "This is a film that is not just watched, it's used. It motivates people to take action, even if it's just voting with their fork. The Future of Food has already helped influence policy. It's exciting to think that the film could have a role in creating a healthier future for everyone."