The Art and Politics of Eating

Arribes: Everything Else is Noise portrays the bittersweet lives of the inhabitants of this isolated region of NW Spain, where sacrifice and hard work began at an early age, but where a simpler, basic life-style made room for a sense of community and happiness.

Arribes: Everything Else is Noise / Arribes: el resto es barullo from Zev Robinson on Vimeo.

As people reflect on never owning a car or tractor, walking from village to village to go to communal dances, tending goats and sheep by themselves from pre-adolescence, killing the animals that they had fondly raised, and remembering the region when it was a green paradise, a picture of a eco-system emerges where everything is used, recycled, and interconnected. Producing 80-90% of their own food, there has always been a strong, direct relationship between food, agriculture, and the people who tend the land, making it a concrete example of an healthy, sustainable environment with lessons that can be applied elsewhere. The documentary raises questions about our own way of living and values, and if changes in lifestyles, priorities and population structures are essential for a more sustainable future. With the depopulation of the countryside, the erosion of this way of life is contrasted with the views of a younger generation who moved there from Madrid, Barcelona and the UK, attracted by what Arribes had to offer.

The sometimes funny, sometimes sad anecdotes are accompanied by details of everyday countryside life depicted with a sense of poetry and care, bringing into focus values often forgotten in a contemporary society with other priorities.

Screening of Arribes in London

Copa de Cava, 33 Blackfriars Lane, London EC4V 6EP
November 10, 2014  –

Doors open 6:30 pm, screening at 7 pm, Olive oil tasting at 8 pm
Limited tickets for film and tasting £9.50,
Tickets here – http://bit.ly/Arribes_Tickets

Special dinner menu £10, can be ordered separately on the evening.

The documentary will be followed by a tasting of some of Spain’s finest, award-winning Extra Virgin Olive Oils, introduced by leading expert Charles Carey of The Oil Merchant.

Olive Oil Producers – Aceite 900, Aceite 2B, Aceite Guirado Noguera, Almazara La Alquería, Bardomus, Birdy, Bodegas Vegamar, Casas de Hualdo, Dehesa de la Sabina, L’Estornell,L’Oli del Mar, Hacienda Guzmán, Hacienda Queiles, Jacoliva, Marqués de Valdueza, Oleícola del Cabriel, Santa Teresa 1881, Tot Oli, and others.