Taste and See Screening Event Guide: How to Make Ricotta

Taste and See is now streaming! And to assist you in savoring the pilot film, the Rabbit Room has partnered with the Taste and See team to create a unique screening event guide. True to the spirit of the film, the event guide is designed to take you beyond the screen and into the company of friends and family around a table. Included in the guide are discussion questions and a simple, accessible recipe for homemade ricotta crostini—a cheese which figures prominently in the pilot film.

(Re-)introducing the Rabbit Room Podcast

The Rabbit Room Podcast is your one-stop shop for all things Rabbit Room. Each month, co-hosts Drew Miller and Leslie Eiler Thompson discuss what you can expect from us in the next four weeks, from Rabbit Room Press to North Wind Manor events to our Podcast Network and more. And sometimes, they’ll even talk with a special guest. Be on the lookout for new episodes at the beginning of each month.

Life from Death: An Interview with Director Andrew Brumme

Last week, we introduced you to a beautiful new documentary series on the spirituality of food called Taste & See, and invited you to attend one of the virtual screenings coming up on June 3rd. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be giving you various peeks behind the scenes of this project, starting with this in-depth interview with Director Andrew Brumme.

Introducing Taste and See

Every once in a while, the Rabbit Room team has the good fortune of crossing paths with someone whose creative work is shockingly aligned with our own. These moments re-invigorate us not only in our own mission and vision, but in the desire to share the good and lasting work of kindred spirits far and wide. Most recently, this wonderful convergence has taken place with Andrew Brumme, who is directing a new documentary series called Taste and See that will blow your mind and change the way you think about breakfast.

Thomas McKenzie Film Series Presents Taste and See: Sneak Peek

The Thomas McKenzie Film Series is the Rabbit Room’s ongoing film screening and discussion series at North Wind Manor, named in honor of our friend and fellow film enthusiast, Father Thomas McKenzie. To kick off the Film Series, the Rabbit Room is hosting at North Wind Manor a screening of Taste and See, a documentary project currently in production that explores the spirituality of food with farmers, chefs, bakers and winemakers engaging with food as a profound gift from God. Their lives in the fields, in the kitchen and around the table serve as a meditation on the beauty, mystery and wonder to be found in every meal.

Imagination & Kubo and the Two Strings

I once went a year without eating bread. It wasn’t a fast or a health kick or anything noble like that. I’m allergic to gluten and moved overseas to work in a country without gluten-free anything. It also happened to be a country without unlimited internet. Each month I would save up my data to Skype family back home or stream a movie. One month I used all my data spending seven hours downloading Rogue One, which never made it to the theater in the town where I lived.

Joy on the Journey: Chasing Sehnsucht in Zhao’s Nomadland

“Home, is it just a word? Or is it something you carry within you?”

In the opening minutes of Chloe Zhao’s film Nomadland, we see these words inked on the arm of an Amazon employee named Angela, who is showing off tattoos to her new friend, Fern. It’s a quick scene that may not seem particularly noteworthy, however, nothing in this movie is extraneous or insignificant. The words of this tattoo present us with both a portent of what’s to come and the central tension of the entire film.

Mashed Potatoes & Visions

In the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, there is a scene where Rory Neary cries into his mashed potatoes. He, along with several other people, have had an encounter with an extra terrestrial that has implanted a shared vision in their consciousness. The thing is, he’s not sure what the image from the vision is. He’s been trying to replicate it with anything he can find. He sees the shadow of it in pillow cases and shaving cream, but when he tries to form it, it’s just not right. As he shovels mashed potatoes onto his plate and begins to try to sculpt them into the image, his family looks on in horror. He starts crying, and then his son starts crying. Throughout the film he defends his odd behavior, saying “this means something”—even though he doesn’t know what.

Encanto and the Miracle of Empathy

One of the reasons I love fantasy as a genre is because of the inclusion of magic. In fantasy stories—the good ones anyway—magic can reveal the spiritual realities that we all sense in life but can’t see, and have no material frame to express.

Stuff We Liked in 2021

No matter what your 2021 held, you were no doubt helped along by some comforting art, music, and story. You might have discovered an album that seemed to name precisely your own emotional landscape; perhaps you stumbled on a book that you could count on as an escape in the silent hours of the night; or maybe it was a TV show that kept you hooked from its pilot to its finale. Whatever it was, we want to hear about it! So please share in the comments section below. In the meantime, we’ve got some excellent recommendations from the Rabbit Room’s staff and blog contributors to get the conversation started.

The Violent Grace of The Green Knight

Author’s note: This essay contains spoilers for the 14th century British poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the 2021 film The Green Knight. If I spoil the poem for you, well, your bad, you’ve had six centuries to catch up. However, spoiling the film for you would be more understandable, so perhaps steer clear until you’ve seen it.

The Resistance: Emile Mosseri

[Editor’s note: As a companion piece to Jennifer Trafton’s essay this morning on the magic of Mary Poppins, here’s a conversation about the craft of scoring films with Emile Mosseri, known most recently for his work on Minari and The Last Black Man in San Francisco.]