King Corn

King Corn is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn and the subsidized crop that drives America's fast-food nation.

In King Corn, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the East Coast, move to the heartland--the State of Iowa, specifically--to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds and powerful herbicides, Cheney and Ellis plant and grow a bumper crop of America's most-productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat--and how we farm.

Trailer

Credits

Director/Producer: Aaron Woolf
Co-Producers: Curt Ellis, Ian Cheney
Cinematographers: Sam Cullman, Ian Cheney, Aaron Woolf
Writers: Aaron Woolf, Ian Cheney, Curt Ellis, Jeffrey K. Miller
Editor: Jeffrey K. Miller
Composers: The WoWz with Bo Ramsey and Spencer Chakedis
Total Running Time: 50 min.
Website:
www.kingcorn.net

About The Filmmakers

CURT ELLIS is a Food and Society Fellow with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and the WK Kellogg Foundation. Prior to directing Big River, he co-produced King Corn and produced The Greening of Southie. He lives in Brooklyn, where he collaborates with Ian Cheney on documentary and advocacy projects through their company, Wicked Delicate.

AARON WOOLF has won Rockie, Logie and Peabody awards for his films. His documentaries Greener Grass: Cuba, Baseball, and the United States; Dying to Leave: The Global Face of Human Trafficking and Smuggling; King Corn and Blueprint America: Beyond the Motor City all aired nationally on PBS. Woolf is also co-founder of the sustainable grocery Urban Rustic, the advocacy organization Food Democracy Now and Mozaic Films. He received a master's in film at the University of Iowa, but he feels he got the bulk of his education in the field in Lima, Mexico City and Los Angeles.

IAN CHENEY is a Brooklyn-based documentary filmmaker. He co-created and appeared in King Corn and directed the Sundance Channel film The Greening of Southie. He is currently finishing work as director of The City Dark. Cheney is a graduate of Yale University.

Awards

Peabody Award
BendFilm: Best Documentary
Wild and Scenic Film Festival: Jury Award