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Portland is known for its massive food festival and its various, ahem, unique film festivals, so it’s inevitable both worlds would eventually overlap. Chomp, a food film festival, will host its first event in North Portland this September, starting with a small selection of food-themed short films.
Chomp is a project from Damian Magista, the founder of urban honey company Bee Local who somewhat recently switched gears and entered the world of film. Over the last two years, he and filmmaker Lucas Longacre collaborated to make Food Cart, a horror film centered around a food cart owner in Portland. Now that Food Cart is in the festival circuit, the team realized the city needed a better showcase of Portland’s food-based films. “We started talking to Ryan [Born] at Mayfly, so we thought, ‘Why don’t we start a food film festival? What a good way to showcase our relationship with food,’” he remembers.
The festival has expanded into a set of four short films, including Kelly Cox’s Dirty Birds, a study of chicken farming; Creature Comforts, a post-apocalyptic portrait of a scavenger; and Carnal Orient, a “dark and strangely surreal snapshot of sexual desire aimed at the exotic.”
Of course, no film festival would be complete without food and drink. Sarah Schneider of women-centric event space The Nightwood Society plans to roast a suckling pig to serve alongside the film, and local Pono Brewing has brewed an exclusive beer for the event.
After the Portland festival, Magista wants to expand into other cities, including Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York, partnering with local chefs and filmmakers.
Tickets are $30 and include a beer, food, and entry into a raffle and the screening. Chomp will start September 7 at 7 p.m., located within Mayfly, 8350 N Fenwick Avenue. Find tickets at Eventbrite.
• Chomp [Eventbrite]
• Food Cart [Official]
• Carnal Orient [NW Film]
• Creature Comforts [Portland Film Festival]
• The Original Fare [PBS]
• Portland Filmmakers Take Aim at Portland Food Culture [EPDX]
