Comments on: Review: ‘Cafeteria Man’ A One Sided, Fly By Look At The Food Activism Of Chef Tony Geraci

By: Dana Woldow

Dana Woldow — Fri, 13 May 2016 11:19:19 +0000

I saw "Cafeteria Man" in San Francisco; you can read my review here:
Cafeteria Man Tony Geraci: hype or hope?
http://tinyurl.com/dx4994u
I've been actively involved with school food reform in SF since 2002, and I can assure you that Geraci and this film had no impact whatsoever on our work here. It is more than a little troubling that the distributor of this puff piece would try to claim the credit for inspiring efforts which have already been moving forward for a decade.

By: Steve Ladd

Steve Ladd — Fri, 13 May 2016 11:19:19 +0000

As the distributor of this film, I have to say your review runs counter to the reception and impact we've seen Cafeteria Man have at a variety of screenings — from Atlanta to Dallas, San Francisco to Washington, DC, and more. It inspires people with a vision of what's possible and encourages them to take action to improve school food programs in their communities. It doesn't gloss over the difficulties — you certainly see Tony's frustrations with the challenges he faces. Tony has had even greater success in Memphis, a bigger district which has a central kitchen. For more info on what he has accomplished since leaving Baltimore, and other resources that help fill out this film, visit http://www.cafeteriaman.com

By: Richard Chisolm

Richard Chisolm — Fri, 13 May 2016 11:19:19 +0000

As the director of Cafeteria Man, I was not contacted or interviewed for this review. That is unfortunate since the reviewer made spurious assumptions of what the film intended to be and used information from a magazine article that was rife with errors. We did not portray Tony Geraci as a saint, nor was the film a 'portrait' documentary about his life. The film was deliberately a glimpse of aspirations to reform school food in Baltimore against formidable obstacles and a shameful history of systemic decline. And Mr. Geraci neither left Baltimore "abruptly" in our film nor in real life. The fact that our independent documentary has screened at over twenty festivals, received awards at three, and been highly successful in advancing a national conversation on its subject seems not to figure into this reviewer's critique of the film he would like to have seen.