[Note: This review of "Alchemy" appeared in the Nevada City Advocate newspaper as part of a set of reviews for the 8th Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival.]
People immerse themselves in issues at the Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival.Sometimes, even at an environmental film festival, you need to put the issues on hold.You need to meditate.You need a film like “Alchemy.”
“Alchemy,” subtitled “The Poetics of Bread Making,” is a twenty minute video summary of making bread from scratch.Not a word is spoken.No music plays.Only a pair of hands appears on camera.
You watch those hands being washed, grain being ground, ingredients being mixed in, and a hand mooshing it all together.Most entrancing in this time-lapsed video record is the dough rising.The dough is kneaded and kneaded again. It’s placed in oiled pans and slid into the oven.It doesn’t ruin the end of the film to say that the bread gets eaten.
Meditating on making bread from scratch.I guess “Alchemy” is an environmental issue picture.