Soul Food Junkies By Byron Hurt

Soul Food Junkies (2012) is a documentary written and directed by filmmaker Byron Hurt. In the film, Byron Hurt presents a popular debate: is soul food unhealthy? However, unlike others, Hurt does not only focus on the impact that soul food has on an individual's physical health but also the influence it has on the health of a society. This novel proposition forces the audience to consider how much of an influence culture has on a society and how much society, influences various cultures. There are many different factors, this film explores several including the access to healthy food in poorer neighborhoods and Southern American history. Soul Food Junkies takes on a difficult task of defending what some may consider to be common knowledge

Hurt’s film discusses the idea of food deserts. This idea suggests that supermarkets tend to not be built predominantly black neighborhoods and therefore, they are forced to rely on unhealthy foods or even fast food, to feed themselves. However, this point could be criticized for confusing correlation with causation. There are a variety of reasons that supermarkets are not built in these neighborhoods, one opinion proposes that it could instead be an issue amongst economic levels, not race. This claim also holds truth because it is apparent that health issues correlated with culture does not only affect blacks but also latino, asian, and european culture too, all of which are suffering from their own specific health concerns. By presenting black culture as being the only unhealthy culture, Hurt at least on a subconscious level, is labeling the entire soul food diet as an unhealthy choice that logically makes no sense. This careless mistake of excluding other cultures completely negatively affects Hurt’s credibility late in the film and exhibits him as a grossly, biased

Soul Food Junkies does a phenomenal job of introducing ideas. This film overall also does a great job in defending the minority opinion by allowing real people to speak on why they continue to do what they do and what real leaders are proposing as solutions to a problem. There are controversial opinions, but this film is meant to be watched with an open mind. In the final moments, the audience is called to action to personally reconsider their dietary choices. In this way, Soul Food Junkies is extremely successful in demonstrating how easy small choices can change our society’s view of unhealthy soul food. Again, average people discuss their personal lifestyle changes; from differences in food preparations growing up, to young children being taught how to cater to a garden themselves. The role of interviews are powerful in this film by imploring the audience to create small changes in the present day in an attempt to retain their culture and