"An excellent introduction to any course on food and agriculture in the United States." Lawrence Busch, Director, Institute for Food and Agricultural Standards, Michigan State University

King Corn's filmmakers can attend your event, host a discussion, or give a keynote address. To inquire about inviting a filmmaker to your screening, please contact bigriverfilm [at] gmail [dot] com. If you would like to also purchase posters to promote your screening, call us or email us at kcorn@bullfrogfilms.com.]

KING CORN is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation.

In KING CORN, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the East Coast, move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America's most-productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa 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.

Features Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, and Earl Butz, former US Secretary of Agriculture.

New Companion Film Check out BIG RIVER: A KING CORN COMPANION on the environmental consequences of industrial agriculture. The same DVD also includes the new classroom version of KING CORN.



Grade Level: 8-12, College, Adult
US Release Date: 2007     Copyright Date: 2007
DVD ISBN: 1-59458-701-9     VHS ISBN: 1-59458-700-0

Reviews "If we are what we eat, we are corn--the modern staff of life. In a gentle but extraordinarily subversive narrative, King Corn skillfully takes us through the industrial food chain, from field to plate. All actors in this story receive compassionate treatment--from Iowa farmers and Colorado cattlemen to diabetic New Yorkers and an engaging Earl Butz, the former USDA Secretary who advocated maximum production, damn the consequences. There are no 'bad guys' here. And yet, the net result is a devastating sketch of a food production system that is economically, ecologically, and medically unsustainable. How did we ever get into such a fix?" Warren Belasco, Professor of American Studies, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Author, Meals to Come: A History of the Future of Food "King Corn not only describes the debilitating industrialized agriculture system in which farmers are caught, it also reveals a food system that is not serving us citizen-eaters well. The 'cheap food' provided by our industrialized food system may turn out to be very expensive when all of the costs are considered. This film will encourage many citizens and organizations to become engaged in the food debate that has already begun in many sectors of our society and to join with others who are already part of that debate, to change the policies which, as the film points out, helped to create this food system in the first place. Everyone should see this film." Frederick Kirschenmann, Distinguished Fellow, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture and President of Kirschenmann Family Farms "In this well-crafted film Ian and Curt set off to fulfill their 'dream of fields,' by farming one acre of corn in Iowa. They use that experience to explore the entire corn commodity chain from inputs all the way through to final consumption. Along the way they discover the many successes and failures brought about by the dominance of corn as the basic feedstock for most of the foods we eat. Thus, in a straightforward manner the film displays the tapestry that weaves together overproduction, farm payments, ever-growing farm size, rural depopulation, animal antibiotic use, obesity, and diabetes. I would recommend this film as an excellent introduction to any course on food and agriculture in the United States. Indeed, anyone interested in understanding the problems inherent in corn farming in mid-America - in fact, anyone who eats - should see this film." Lawrence Busch, University Distinguished Professor, Dept. of Sociology, Director, Institute for Food and Agricultural Standards, Michigan State University "Excellent job...Highly appropriate for courses on the culture and politics of food, health or agriculture." Deeadra Brown, CUNY, Anthropology Review Database "King Corn is interested in looking at the problems surrounding the industrial food system as a holistically understood entity. Questions of environment, politics, labor, health, community and policy are addressed. Additionally, the film has a fine sense of history...This documentary has high potential for classroom use in instigating discussions about a range of issues surrounding contemporary industrial agriculture." Rebecca Onion, Green Theory and Praxis: The Journal of Ecopedagogy "The molecules in most Americans' bodies come more from corn than from any other source; at the same time that it has made us fat, corn monoculture has impoverished the American landscape more than any other organism. And yet, until the filming of King Corn, few Americans had a means to understand why their addiction to high-fructose corn sweeteners is the greatest threat to their health and to the health of rural communities and their landscapes. This film should be seen by every farmer, consumer and student who still believes that America has been made beautiful by our 'amber waves of grain.'" Gary Nabhan, Author, Coming Home to Eat, Founder, Renewing America's Food Traditions initiative "The somewhat goofy premise of two East Coast 20-somethings heading to Iowa to farm a single acre of corn actually works, and it works well. Students will be pulled in by Ian and Curt's curiosity and doggedness on their mission to understand how corn becomes us. Along the way, we learn quite a bit about the current realities of Midwest crop farming, decline and resilience in rural America, and the contradictory and disturbing implications of U.S. commodity subsidy policy in shaping the options and outcomes of our food system. King Corn presents a compelling mix of experts and regulars with clarity and compassion. It generates enough laughs to be fun, while also stimulating serious thinking about the important topic of how farm practices and policies influence the food we eat." Clare Hinrichs, Associate Professor of Rural Sociology, Penn State University "Brings biochemistry to vivid life. On a surface level, this genial eye-opener celebrates friendship and farming, but on a deeper plane the film laments government largesse and genetic modifications that have turned a protein-filled product into today's 'yellow dent no. 2.' Highly recommended." Video Librarian "Students in farming communities are sure to debate many statements and ideas present here. The film can be utilized as a launch pad to research its major premises. A singular addition to library collections." School Library Journal "There is so much information in this documentary--history, science, socioeconomic trends, diet and nutrition information--that it will be useful to a variety of disciplines...The story flows along, with the related aspects expertly woven into the main theme and giving viewers both the micro and macroscopic picture of the influence of corn in our life, our diet and our society today. Highly Recommended." Janis Tyhurst, George Fox University, Educational Media Reviews Online "Easy to watch and interwoven with quirky animation; recommended for any library, but especially those in areas with a high interest in sustainability and environmentalism." Library Journal "No doubt inspired to some degree by Super Size Me this equally engaging, slightly better-crafted docu deftly balances humor and insight...Arresting factoids are delivered by helmer Aaron Woolf and collaborators in a package that's as agreeable as it is informative. Subjects' low-key antics, their affectionate regard for the small-town milieu, some delightful stop-motion animation and an excellent rootsy soundtrack by the WoWz all make King Corn go down easy, even if you might regard your burger, fries and Coke with suspicion afterward. Handsome lensing and Jeffrey K. Miller's sharp editing are also worthy of note." Dennis Harvey, Variety "The press materials for King Corn trumpet it as a cross between Sicko and Super Size Me, but the film's protagonists, Mr. Ellis and his college friend, Ian Cheney, come off as genial searchers rather than driven interrogators...In the film, Mr. Butz is treated as respectfully as Iowa's plain-spoken farmers, and the golden fields of corn are shot to evoke their majesty. If the filmmakers are going to point any fingers, they say, they will start with themselves." Joe Drape, The New York Times "King Corn is as relevant as Super Size Me and as important as An Inconvenient Truth in the recent rash of documentaries that challenge our perceptions of daily life in America." The Austin Chronicle "An enormously entertaining moral, socio-economic odyssey (and statistical bonanza) through the American food industry. Ellis, Cheney, and Aaron Woolf's documentary is clear-minded and fair, but just damningly descriptive enough to leave you distrustful of everything on your plate." William Morris, The Boston Globe "Gorgeously filmed in digital video and Super-8, using clever stop-motion corn kernel animation and a lyrical score by the 'anti-folk' band the WoWz, King Corn takes what could be a tiresome agri-civics lesson and delivers a lively, funny, sad and even poetic treatise on the reality behind America's cherished self-image as the breadbasket of the world...It should be required viewing before going into a supermarket, McDonald's or your very own refrigerator." Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post "Where this documentary distinguishes itself, however, is in the unusual amount of warmth it lets into the mix. Cheney and Ellis are both funny and completely unthreatening, which does not mean toothless. Like his stars, Woolf treats both friend and foe (including farm-subsidies inventor Earl Butz) with respect, refraining from sarcasm, superiority, or ambush. King Corn insists that we recognize the Corn Belt's beauty and intelligence along with its somewhat self-induced plight." Janice Page, The Boston Globe "A deceptively intelligent new entry in the regular-Joe documentary genre...A graceful and frequently humorous film that captures the idiosyncrasies of its characters and never hectors." Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com "This is a twofold journey: the story of how two college buddies learned about their agricultural heritage, and the tale of how kernels of corn have insidiously worked their way into America's diet-through the cows who are literally overdosing on the stuff...and the soft drinks sweetened with a syrup that the men find impossible to manufacture in a kitchen without damned near blowing up the house. A worthy companion piece to Super Size Me and Fast Food Nation...King Corn will put you off corn for a long, long time, but this is as much a thoughtful meditation on the plight of the American farmer as it is a rant against our expanding waistlines." Robert Wilonsky, Village Voice "The tale of our number one crop and its most loyal fan: the American consumer...Even if you think you know all the problems, and especially if you happen to totally love corn, this movie is worth your while." Mother Jones magazine "The secret history of a ubiquitous grain...King Corn is penetrating and graceful, an uproariously funny and unexpectedly moving look at America's food supply, and especially at the massive corn-farming operations that have come to dominate the placid landscapes of the American Midwest." The Isthmus (Madison, WI) "A jauntily hip analysis of the path corn takes from Iowa cornfields to the ultimate ruination of agriculture and American health, King Corn follows in the Morgan Spurlock school with added delight and stop-motion animation. Corn can be funny, it turns out, even if it is destroying us all." Toronto Eye Weekly "One of the film's great strengths is the apparent warmth of relationships these guys have created with the locals of Greene, Iowa. Locals think these two kids are a bit crazy to farm a single acre in a place where 500-acre plantings seem small, but are happy to share their lives with them in a very authentic way. To their vast credit, the filmmakers never score cheap points by painting the locals as bumpkins. While primarily about the food system, King Corn also documents friendship. The film is sweet but not sugary, earnest and open-minded, and more than a little bit tragic." Grist Magazine