In his Daily News column, Stanley Crouch examines a documentary that is currently in the works about the harms of Southern cuisine. He says that the film highlights how many of the illnesses that plague the black community are the result of foods dripping in grease, fat, sugar and butter.
"Soul Food Junkies" is a documentary being made by Byron Hurt; he is presently raising money to finish it. My own nickname for him is “Braveheart” because of his willingness to bring complexity to issues that affect black people first, but are bound to become troubling to the country at large because they are not the result of genetics. They are the result of exploitation or misunderstanding.
Hurt first deserved his “Braveheart” nickname after doing a surprisingly serious film about the decadence at the center of the hip-hop phenomenon. It was called “Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes.” Though an admitted fan of early hip hop, Hurt was disturbed as the so-called music moved away from community awareness and was taken over by hustlers who reached to the bottom of the barrel for profit-making material that could be placed on the auction block of popular culture …
The one Hurt is now working on — “Soul Food Junkies” — may hit the target much more quickly when finished and released. It might become as well discussed as Morgan Spurlock’s 2004 documentary “Super Size Me,” which was an explosive revelation about the toxic fast food industry.
Read Stanley Crouch's complete column at the Daily News.