Food Roots

In Food Roots, Emmy-Award winning Chicago Restaurateur Billy Dec adventures through his mother’s native 7641 Islands of the Philippines to learn recipes from his last living elders, confronting culinary and cultural treasures and family secrets. Food Roots gives viewers the opportunity to accompany Dec by plane, boat, motorcycle, jeepney and foot, as he searches through bustling metropolitan cities, tiny remote islands, and hidden cloud-scraping mountain villages to find his family members. He climbs a mountain to meet with a 103 year-old tribal tattoo master, where she blesses him with a tattoo related to his ancestral connection. Through the ups and downs of the trip, Dec gains a deeper understanding of his family history, along with an elevated appreciation for how food has shaped their view of the world. (Nashville Film Festival)