Lianne Turner

Preserving Taste

In the era of food sustainability, Hanif Sadr, an engineer turned chef from Tehran, Iran, has opened his first Iranian regional restaurant in San Francisco, USA. He delved into the farm-to-table gastronomy world after working as a cook for a Montessori school in Berkley. His mission is to introduce the regional and seasonal recipes of Northern Iran, learnt from his childhood to the North American public where its ingredients geographically match California. With his wife banned from the US and a lack of distribution of Iranian food ingredients due to sanctions, he travels back and forth between Iran and the U.S., attempting to bridge the personal and political to bring back a taste of home. Alongside other renowned food figures, Hanif aims to show the depth of a unique forgotten cuisine that is connected with nature, influenced by seasons, and defines the art of preservation techniques.

Born Free: The Real Cost of Birth

In BORN FREE, filmmaker Paula James Martinez travels across the US to understand what makes it the most dangerous and most expensive nation in the developed world to give birth in. From heartbreaking personal stories to harrowing facts and the words of experts both in the medical and legal fields, BORN FREE shines a light on the true cost of giving birth in the US.