The Soul Food Tradition and Effects on Health Featured in New Documentary Premiering on PBS

September 4, 2018

Byron Hurt’s Provocative Soul Food Junkies to Premiere on New Season of Independent Lens in January 2013

Byron Hurt, Producer and Director of Soul Food Junkies

The Emmy® and Peabody Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens announced today that Byron Hurt’s new film Soul Food Junkies will premiere in January 2013. This fall, Independent Lens moves from Thursdays to the coveted 10:00 p.m. time slot on Monday nights, following longtime hit Antiques Roadshow and the new series Market Warriors.

In Soul Food Junkies filmmaker Byron Hurt sets out on a historical and culinary journey to learn more about the soul food tradition and its relevance to black cultural identity. Hurt’s exploration was inspired by his father’s lifelong love affair with the high-fat, calorie-rich traditional soul food diet and his unwillingness to give it up even in the face of a life-threatening health crisis. Hurt discovers that the relationship between African Americans and culinary dishes like ribs, grits, and fried chicken is culturally based, deep-rooted, complex, and often deadly.

Through candid interviews with soul food cooks, historians, and scholars, as well as with doctors, family members, and everyday people, Soul Food Junkies puts this culinary tradition under the microscope to examine both its positive and negative consequences. Hurt also explores the socioeconomic conditions in predominantly black neighborhoods, where it can be difficult to find healthy options, and meets some pioneers in the emerging food justice movement who are challenging the food industry, encouraging communities to “go back to the land” by creating sustainable and eco-friendly gardens, advocating for healthier options in local supermarkets, supporting local farmers’ markets, avoiding highly processed fast foods, and cooking healthier versions of traditional soul food.

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