A new documentary about Bay Area food innovators will highlight creative solutions to many problems that face the U.S. food system.

About two years into filming, Edible City is a couple months shy of a rough cut, said director Andrew Hasse, 29, of Berkeley.

Hasse and collaborators spoke with many people around the Bay Area who are experimenting with different ways to control their own food supply and help others get more access to healthy food.

"From the most grassroots and individual activism all the way up through the food chain," Hasse said, "we wanted to look at all the important aspects of what's going on."

The movie focuses on eight characters who are involved in various aspects of the food movement: a high school teacher, a nutrition teacher and a back yard farmer; people involved with neighborhood food security and food economy projects; and people doing statewide, national and international food justice policy-related activism.

Hasse said other films, such as Food, Inc., do "a great job" outlining problems with the system.

"We wanted to answer the questions that some of these other movies raise so well," he said. "We want to show what people are doing to work on solving the problems, get a little deeper into specifics and show how anybody can get involved in changing the food system."

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Edible City Trailer 2 from East Bay Pictures on Vimeo.

Hasse said one goal of the team, which includes Bret Turner, Carl Grether, Adam Goldstein and Chris Woodard, among others, was to make the movie "locally focused," to inspire food advocacy groups to work together and further the work of groups like the Oakland Food Policy Council and Oakland Food Connection, which already emphasize collaboration.

Initially, Hasse said, the idea was to make a film from the organizational and policy standpoint to look at practical solutions. But the documentary took on more of a human perspective.

"We're focusing on the characters and why they're doing what they're doing. You see where their passion comes from," Hasse said.

Particularly in Oakland, he said, it was difficult to choose which groups and individuals to feature because "there are just so many good things going on."

From Willow Rosenthal, who founded City Slicker Farms, to the Hope Collaborative to Food First and many other groups, "the big trick was narrowing down the field," said Hasse.

Hasse said he hopes the film's Web site will serve as a resource for the Bay Area food movement. He has posted extended interviews with many of the groups he spoke with, as well as a resource guide to local food-related groups. He'd like the material to serve as a teaching tool, and he said he plans to post additional full-length interviews as time goes by.

Eric Holt-Gimenez, Food First's executive director, said people should "get out and see this movie."

"Edible City attempts to not only give us a chance to help share with people what the root causes of hunger are, it also explains what people are doing about it," he said. "The Bay Area is a very special place in terms of being a very rich food shed but also having a lot of injustice. We have a lot of hungry people here and a lot of very active people trying to do something about it."

In the Bay Area, he continued, the lack of food security is related to many factors: diseases, poverty, people buying cheap low-quality food and not having access or the ability to afford healthy food.

"There is a tremendous opportunity in the Bay Area to produce and distribute food in different ways," he said. "We can change the rules. The rules of our food system really favor agro-industry. And those rules are the ones making us sick."

The film also discusses how we can use the food system as an engine of local economic development, and address the health crisis, climate crisis and fuel crisis all at the same time, said Holt-Gimenez.

"People around the world are all trying to take back control of food systems from monopolies that control them --  with the complicity of the government," he said. "People are working with local governments to bring about the democratization of the food system in favor of the poor. That's called food sovereignty. Because when the poor are better off, we're all better off."

Sunday Apr. 11 at noon, Andrew Hasse, Carl Grether and Joy Moore will speak at Green Festival in San Francisco about "Edible City: Building a Sustainable Food System." The talk will include a screening of several segments from the film. Green Festival is being held in the Concourse Exhibition Center, 635 8th St. at Brannan Street.

Edible City was partially funded online via kickstarter, a social microfunding system. There have also been grants, house parties and fundraising events around the Bay Area, as well as generous individuals who helped bring the piece to fruition, Hasse said. There will be some additional costs to finish and distribute the film. Learn more about donating here. Donors who give $50 or more will receive a free DVD of Edible City.

Click here to see a round-up of many inspiring Bay Area food organizations and individuals, compiled by Edible City.

Manuel Arrias from East Bay Pictures on Vimeo.