Premiering on TVO!
Semisweet
Synopsis
In wartime, soldiers sent out on suicide missions were frequently handed a field “survival” kit. That kit would often include three things: morphine, a bible, and a chocolate bar.
The chocolate was not given to soldiers for nourishment – there were far better nutritional food options. Instead, much like the morphine and the bible, the chocolate was there to ease the pain – a warm blanket in the cold reality of war. The chocolate was included because of its nostalgic power – a throwback to the innocence of childhood, where death simply has no place.
This is the strange power of chocolate.
Over the last century, the humble chocolate bar has become the most popular candy in the world. Every year – Americans alone – consume on average 11.7 pounds of it. The worldwide consumption increases every year at a rate of 4%.
But chocolate – as it turns out -- was never meant to be candy.
For the ancient Mayans and Aztecs, it was a powerful food to be worshipped. A single drink pressed from cacao beans could sustain a warrior for days in the heat of battle. The ancients even used these sacred beans as currency. When science took it upon itself to give the cacao tree a name, it chose “Theobrama cacao” -- Food of the Gods.
The film Semisweet travels to four vastly different places around the globe to follow the unique journey of characters whose lives have been intrinsically transformed by chocolate. For these people, chocolate is what drives their lives. It’s the ingredient that shapes their actions. It haunts their thoughts. It brightly colours their dreams – and darkens their nightmares.
Semisweet is a film that links stories from across three continents – connected solely by one simple thing: chocolate. It’s a story told through the personal journeys and lives of extraordinary characters. And, although their paths have never directly crossed – their lives are interwoven through that very unique and personal relationship with chocolate.
The Stories
Ron and Nadine
Hip, beautiful, healthy and organic raw foodists, Ron and Nadine are the earth muffins behind “Living Libations”. Their pure source chocolate is the latest craze making waves among the environmentally conscious. It is described by Ron and Nadine as “the love child of Willy Wonka and Mary Poppins dancing in the rain forest.” And it tastes great too!
Ron and Nadine live with their 3-year old son, Leaf in a new-age retreat in the Haliburton wilderness of Northeastern Ontario. It’s in this idyllic place that the duo run their successful mail-order company called “Living Libations”, which started off a dozen years ago selling organic health and beauty products such as creams and essential oils. Their trendy organic health line includes super food chocolate. Ron and Nadine start their mornings with a ‘chocolate breakfast’, snacking on forest grown, whole cacao artisan chocolate. And the best testimony to their chocolate is that their happy and lovely son, Leaf has been raised on a steady diet of this chocolate.
Ron is a professional actor and yoga instructor turned chocolatier – He makes his chocolates with spiritual zen like devotion, using only raw ingredients.
Nadine is well-known in new-age/naturopath circles as a gifted alchemist, Nadine describes herself this way: “I’m a botanical muse shaping effable plant-light into palpable consecrations to blush senses and muse imaginations.”
Together Ron and Nadine will change the way we view chocolate, one bean at a time.
Patrick Roger
Patrick Roger is one of the top chocolatiers in the world -- known by food connoisseurs for his rochers (a contrast of smooth praline filling and crunchy hazelnut flecks), ganaches, and dark chocolate made from lime or hot peppers.
In 2000, on the merits of his chocolate-making skills, Patrick won the highest honour bestowed on any chef in France: Le Meilleur Ouvrier de France.
But, Patrick’s high-end chocolate creations are not only tasty treats – they are veritable works of art. And, as an artist, Patrick is increasingly devoting his time to sculpting large-scale chocolate statues, which he proudly displays in the windows of his 7 Parisian boutiques. Currently, Patrick is working on a 150-pound chocolate orangutan. All of his chocolate sculptures have environmental and social messages, which he hopes will transcend the very idea of chocolate. Patrick believes that chocolate is the perfect medium to change the world – and its perceptions.
Patrick: “I didn’t discover chocolate, it discovered me.”
Milton S. Hershey
At 12 years-old Milton S. Hershey dropped out of school. As a teenager he began an apprenticeship with a Pennsylvanian candy maker and learned the chocolate trade. Shortly after, Milton tried to make it on his own, but his first and second attempt at the candy business was a failure. On his way to being bankrupt before 30, Milton gave it one more go. And the rest is chocolate history. Today he is one of America’s wealthiest individuals.
In 1903, now a confectionary tycoon, Milton S. Hershey set out to build his personal dream -- a tree-lined model community for his employees, wrapped around his famous chocolate factory. The town of Hershey, Pennsylvania soon grew to include a public transportation system, public schools, a department store, and lots of churches. It is better known as "Chocolatetown, USA" or "The Sweetest Place on Earth." To keep his employees cheerful and content, Milton also built Hersheypark.
Today, the 110-acre amusement park includes over 60 rides and attractions – including chocolate-themed rides, shops, restaurants, a zoo, and a state-of-the-art visitor center called Hershey's Chocolate World.
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Film Intent
michael — 7 weeks ago
In October 2008, a woman called me out of the blue. Her name was Lalita Krishna. I had heard the name before. A long time ago, we had both worked for the same TV station. But we didn’t really know each other. A mutual friend had suggested to Lalita that she call me.
Lalita informed me that she wanted to produce a documentary on chocolate. We briefly discussed how several “commodity” documentaries had recently been produced – specifically on coffee and diamonds. Both of these looked at how the production of these goods came to us on the back of slave labour and that they are part of a large, covert and politicized industry.
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What I Learned About Chocolate
michael — 10 weeks ago
Have your say
Would you consider your self a choco-holic?
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Absolutely
20%
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No Way
0%
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Depends on the Day!
80%
The first thing I learned while doing research for the film Semisweet is that chocolate has been around for a long, long time. The common belief is that cacao originated in a region along the border of what is now Ecuador and Colombia. As far back as 1500 BCE, the fruit and seeds from the cacao plant were used by the Olmec Civilization (who gave way to the Mayans, who gave way to the Aztecs, who gave way to the Europeans).
I highly doubt, however, that people today would be too crazy about the type of chocolate the ancients were eating back then. For one thing, they didn’t eat it – they drank it. For another, their chocolate was really bitter, not sweetened at all like the chocolate we know today. This cold, bitter beverage was the ancient world’s answer to Power Bars or Red Bull -- they would give it to their soldiers to fortify them as they left to fight in battle.
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Absolutely
