Fair Food – the documentary!

Thank you so much for your support of AFSA and the Fair Food movement in Australia. We are very excited to be collaborating with communities all around the country in sharing some truly inspiring stories of the wonderful people transforming our food system. In this email we are providing details about how you can obtain a copy of Fair Food from us, arrangements for screening, and the support in terms of materials and promotion and, if possible, speakers, that we can provide.

Obtaining the DVD

Once the licence fee (see below) is paid and the licence agreement signed, a copy of the Fair Food DVD will be sent to your nominated address. The release date for the DVD will be confirmed in a subsequent email but is likely to be between mid-February and early March. The film is 1 hour 4 minutes duration.

Resources and event ideas

How you choose to organise the event is entirely up to you, and we recognise and celebrate that many of you will no doubt have more experience than us in running similar events. We want to help make your event as successful and enjoyable as possible, and so we are putting together some resources and strategies from our own experience hosting film events, as options for you to consider.

Materials / Resources

Here are some of the resources available – let us know on the order section at the base of the licence agreement which, if any, you would like: • A5 small flyers about Fair Food & AFSA • A4 flyers with more information about Fair Food and Food Sovereignty in Australia and why we need a Fair Food movement • Scripts or guided conversation outlines are available to use to introduce the film and to use at the end of the screening to stimulate discussion

Speaker / panel discussions

Wherever and whenever possible AFSA will attempt to have a local AFSA member available to your screening to discuss fair food and food sovereignty issues in Australia, the work of AFSA, and to take part in any speaking slots or panel discussions you may wish to conduct.

Fair Food Week

We encourage all groups and organisations conducting screenings to make attendees aware of Fair Food Week held in line with World Food Day in October each year (www.fairfoodweek.org.au) and if possible guide discussion around what event or events could be planned in your local area to celebrate Fair Food Week this year.

Event ideas

And here are some event ideas which have worked well elsewhere:

• instead of (or to supplement) catering, invite attendees to bring a plate of locally grown food, local fruit or drinks
• set up a photo booth with the #fairfood hashtag, and card and textas available for people to write a short message about what fair food means to them and have their photo taken. Photos can be shared on our AFSA / Fair Food Week Facebook pages and with our Instagram account (http://instagram.com/fairfoodnow/) to celebrate your screening. For inspiration, check out this photo album put together by members of the Lakeside Drive Community Garden for Fair Food Week 2013: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.543397022400692.1073741832.125167374223661&type=3
• if you decide to have some discussion afterwards, and you and the participants feel comfortable doing so, it would be great to capture a few views and opinions about local fair food issues on a short video. We can add these to our YouTube channel and also upload them to the Fair Food doco website, www.justfoodfilms.com, to share what’s happening in your community with the rest of the country and the world.

Cost

Fair Food is available to community groups for a one-time licence fee of $300. Please see the attached FAIR FOOD – Licensing Agreement May 2015 for details of the licence conditions. If your organisation or group would have difficulty recouping the licence fee through ticket sales and sponsorships, or might otherwise have difficulty paying the full amount of this fee, please contact us to discuss alternative arrangements. Equally, as a non-profit association that is entirely reliant on member subscriptions and volunteer labour to sustain our advocacy programs and campaigns, if you are in a position to make an additional donation beyond the licence fee, we would be sincerely grateful. If you are uncertain about any of these terms, please contact AFSA via email or the numbers below to discuss and outline your questions.

Screenings near you

There are numbers of groups interested in hosting screenings planned for Adelaide, Brisbane and north coast NSW (Byron Bay). If you are in those regions and are not already in contact with others locally, please let us know so you can coordinate screenings, if it is decided to host more than one.

Membership of AFSA

Membership of AFSA is not a requirement for purchasing the DVD, but we would like to share a few reasons to consider becoming a member. Change doesn’t happen unless you work for it – and we have, over nearly five years:

• created Australia’s first crowd-sourced food policy document – the People’s Food Plan, with the direct participation of 600 people in 40 public forums;
• exposed the flawed and flimsy foundations of the previous Federal Government’s business-as-usual National Food Plan;
• established a new national event to celebrate the farms, individuals and organisations transforming our food system – Fair Food Week – with over 210 events and more than 35,000 people participating in 2013 and 2014;
• with the Field Institute, crowd-funded over $30,000 to make Australia’s first food politics documentary – Fair Food;
• supported the establishment of local Fair Food Chapters in Brisbane, Adelaide, Sunbury, and Byron Bay, with more in formation;
• created a dedicated advocacy and networking chapter for producers pioneering new ways of land stewardship and short supply chain relationships with their customers and communities – Fair Food Farmers United;
• campaigned for a Local Food Act and multi-million dollar Local Food Fund to support and resource the efforts of all Australians who want a fair food future;
• actively participated in the global food sovereignty movement by attending conferences of La Via Campesina and the International Planning Committee on Food Sovereignty, as well as participated in global food security governance negotiations at the World Committee on Food Security;
• secured a contract with University of Queensland Press to write Australia’s first anthology of the Fair Food movement, which will be published later this year;
• written dozens of articles for online publications and magazines, participated in many seminars, conferences and events as speakers, and been interviewed dozens of times on local and national radio to raise awareness of the key issues.

This is power of a social movement – the power of people working together united by a common vision and passion for change. And we’re just getting started! With your support and participation as individual and group members, we can really make the Fair Food movement in Australia become an unstoppable force for change. We also value greatly your support of AFSA by distributing the membership leaflet at the screenings and promoting membership to attendees. For details of how to join AFSA, please visit: afsa.org.au/join-us.

We are excited about the level of interest being shown around the nation in the Fair Food documentary. We are proud to have been part of bringing Australia’s first Fair Food documentary to you, and hope it will play a role in bringing us into greater connectedness and stimulate smart, innovative, creative action towards making our food system fairer for all.

If you would like any further information, please don’t hesitate to get in touch either by email or by phone at the numbers below.

Warmly,

Tammi Jonas
AFSA President
president@afsa.org.au
0422 429 362

Jessie Power
AFSA General Coordinator
coordinator@afsa.org.au
0403795670

On behalf of the AFSA National Committee