Chicago Food Film Festival Begins Nov. 18

By Anthony Todd in Food on Nov 7, 2011 5:10PM

Reeling? CIFF? Pshaw. At the Chicago Food Film Festival, you get to eat and watch interesting films at the same time. The tagline for the event promises the best thing since Smell-O-Vision: "Taste what you see on the screen." Because the only thing better than watching food porn is watching food porn while eating. Best of all, you can get Doughnut Vault treats without standing in line in the rain.

Grub Street Chicago previewed the festival schedule last week. Unlike regular, stereotypical film festival offerings, there are no ponderous four-hour long foreign masterpieces. This festival includes a wide variety of interesting short films, as short as one minute or as long as 33. Subjects include an obsession with macaroons, the sights and sounds of Chicago's own Doughnut Vault and the sacred food of the Ojibwe tribe.

Our favorite description is for Dinner for Two: An Edible Valentine in Three Acts: "Part food porn, part how-to, this short film documents the making of a three-course meal and includes romance, suspense and murder." We hope the how-to part doesn't include the murder! Michael Gebert, creator of Sky Full of Bacon and editor of Grub Street Chicago, will be screening "Farm to Barstool," a six-minute film about Pleasant House Bakery.

The films are split into four events. Read more about details on the site. Our two favorites are "Edible Adventure #004: The Doughnut Vault Brunch" and "The Great Chicago Shuck 'n Suck." For the first, $25 gets you 5 different films, doughnuts from Doughnut Vault, pies from Pleasant House Bakery, macaroons from Danny Macaroons and Intelligentsia Coffee. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday morning. The second features an "authentic lowcountry oyster shuck" and 7 films. Of course, our personal locavore sympathies lie with "Farm to Film to Table" which features pies from Hoosier Mama and Bobtail ice cream.

Tickets are on sale now, and you have a choice of buying a ticket to each individual segment (There are 4) or a pass for the whole festival ($135). Tickets include both admission to the films and the food and drink at each event. The New York version sold out, so buy your tickets now. Most events are at Kendall College, except the Doughnut Vault Brunch, which is at Intelligentsia Roasting Works.