A documentary about chef José Andrés’s World Central Kitchen (WCK), his global nonprofit focused on feeding people in areas of crisis, is premiering at Austin’s South by Southwest later this week.
The National Geographic documentary directed by Ron Howard spans the first 10 years of WCK, which Andrés started in 2010 in response to the humanitarian crisis in Haiti following the massive earthquake that January.
While there is no trailer for the film yet, National Geographic shared this clip ahead of the eventual release. Andrés narrates how he realized it was important to cook in the traditions of the places where the organization was cooking. In the aftermath of the earthquake, a group of women showed him how they made beans, which was different from the way the chef makes the pureed bean dish.
Then journalist and author Richard Wolffe pops up to explain how that approach dictated the central guiding principle of WCK. Andrés summed it up: “They were showing me the path of what World Central Kitchen should be doing. To this day, when we go to far-away places, we make sure that what we are feeding is what the locals will love to eat.”
Currently, WCK and Andrés are on the ground in Eastern Europe in response to Russia’s aggressive invasion and war in Ukraine, both cooking at a Poland border crossing to feed Ukrainian refugees and in Odessa, Ukraine, where they are cooking for those who can’t leave and for civilians fighting the Russian troops.
We Feed People premieres at SXSW on Saturday, March 19 with an in-person screening at the Paramount, followed by virtual availability on Sunday, March 20. The