If you missed its local premiere at the聽DC Environmental Film Festival聽back in March, the inspirational new documentary 鈥淲e Feed People鈥� finally drops on Disney+ on Friday.
That means the entire world can stream one of the year’s most important films, shaking each of us from the slumber of our daily grind to ask what we are doing for humanity.
Directed by Academy Award winner Ron Howard, the film chronicles the humanitarian efforts of celebrity chef Jos茅 Andr茅s, who rises from D.C. restaurant fame to launch the World Central Kitchen (WCK), feeding countless global citizens after natural disasters.
The film opens with the devastation of Hurricane Florence in Wilmington, North Carolina in 2018. While transporting meals across the floodwaters, their boat capsizes as aluminum food trays sit precariously above the waterline. 鈥淎re we all swimmers here?鈥� Andr茅s asks, caring for his colleagues. When a reporter asks his name, he simply replies,” Jos茅.”
Enter the hero’s backstory, training at high-end restaurants in Spain before moving to D.C. in 1993 at age 23 to open the Spanish聽tapas restaurant Jaleo. Journalist聽Richard Wolffe recalls, 鈥淭here were lots of people in the Washington establishment that saw him as an upstart. Who was this Spanish guy? He was big, ambitious, almost too big for his britches.鈥�
We see his rise to celebrity fame, from David Letterman to Craig Ferguson, even hosting his own TV show. Former Washington Post food writer Carole Sugarman says, “This idea of chefs as celebrities was a new concept and Jos茅 caught that wave. There鈥檚 a whole range of what level of egomania that celebrity chefs have. He became more like a brand.鈥�
Then his mission arrives. 鈥淓veryone always has a moment in life that you receive a call,” Andr茅s says. During the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, he was vacationing in the Cayman Islands and felt powerless to be so close. “I鈥檓 watching those images of destruction. I was like, let鈥檚 go. It was not like I鈥檓 thinking I鈥檓 going to help, it was like I鈥檓 going to learn.鈥�
His operation begins humbly, feeding 250 people in聽Port-au-Prince, but Andr茅s is humbled by having to make black beans the local way as a pur茅e. 鈥淒espite having his ego bruised, he realized that you have to respect people,” Wolffe says. “Food is about community, having food your way, not the way some white savior thinks it should be cooked.鈥�
We watch his nonprofit grow during Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in 2017.聽鈥淭he problem with [President Trump] throwing towels is not the towels, that was a nice thing to do, the problem is that鈥檚 what relief is becoming, let me throw you the bones,” Andr茅s says, as citizens write pleading chalk message on the street: 鈥淪.O.S. We need water and food!鈥�
The film shows Andr茅s and WCK C.E.O. Nate Mook taking the first flight into Puerto Rico and making paella to feed half a million people a day. Andr茅s writes makeshift plans on the wall, saying, “Take care of the problem first, then we鈥檒l figure out how to pay for it. We were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a day [without] a dollar in the bank.鈥�
Like any good film, we must see the emotional toll. In an “all is lost” moment, the American Red Cross rejects his funding request. “FEMA is going to release more money, but they鈥檙e so slow. I鈥檓 asking for a $1 million line of credit I don鈥檛 even have,” Andr茅s says before breaking down in tears of frustration and exhaustion as he flies home to see a doctor.
Enter Howard’s “Andy Griffith” and “Happy Days” pathos, showing the chef’s family ties. We see the strain on his three daughters: Ines recounts strangers’ selfies at a Dupont Circle farmers market, Lucia asks, 鈥淲hy do you make yourself the hero?鈥� and Carlota says, 鈥淧eople ask who cooks at home? My dad cooks, but my mom feeds the family.鈥�
The glue that holds them together is his wife聽Patricia, who jokes, 鈥淧eople say, ‘Oh you have three girls,’ and I say, ‘I have three girls and one boy!’ … He does what he does because I do what I do. He comes back and finds a safe haven.鈥� Behind every good man is a great woman as Carlota says, 鈥淢y mom has a backpack ready for him at all times.鈥�
He needs that backpack when a volcano erupts in Guatemala in 2018. Not only does the WCK provide disaster relief, it proactively builds a聽kitchen to provide food, purified water, electricity and communications in case of future disasters. “When we leave … we need to make sure that what we leave behind keeps moving forward on its own,” Andr茅s says.
Not only does his nonprofit evolve, so does the filmmaking. After tons of archival news footage, Howard puts a camera crew on the ground for Hurricane Dorian in The Bahamas in 2019, riding with amphibious vehicles transporting food like pizza deliveries.聽鈥淎ll of the experiences of the many years came to fruition in a way in the Bahamas,”聽Andr茅s says.
D.C. viewers will smile realizing his global relief efforts were sparked by volunteering for聽Robert Egger of D.C. Central Kitchen聽in 1993. “Robert Egger taught me that it seems charity is about the redemption of the giver when charity should be about the liberation of the receiver,” Andr茅s says. “We give too much to feel good about ourselves.鈥�
The final chapter of the documentary shows Andr茅s most recent response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Wearing a hazmat suit, he serves food to masked people on the streets and hospitals of New York City, as well as quarantined cruise ships in Japan and California. “We can be left without food very easily 鈥� we saw it with COVID,” Andr茅s warns.
Ultimately, viewers are left with the idea of creating a network for the nation’s restaurants to band together during emergencies. “Jos茅聽says we’re creating a model for the U.S. government to feed the people,” his colleague says, paying off when then-candidate聽Joe Biden says, “They say you’re doing God’s work. … If we follow your lead, we’ll get it done.”
After 90 minutes of inspiration through the worst doom and gloom imaginable, Howard has one final laugh up his sleeve with an accidental moment caught on camera. As Andr茅s turns to the camera in disbelief, he pops a cigar in his mouth and we cut to black.
“We Feed People” feeds the souls of viewers.
