12:00a.m. 27th August 2008

You've probably heard of Michael Moore’s film Sicko.

No doubt the name Fast Food Nation rings a bell, too.

But what about Food Matters?

If local filmmakers James Colquhoun and his wife Laurentine ten Bosch get their way, their controversial new documentary will be as well known as the big-name health documentaries to come out of the US.

The Bokarina-based nutritionists launched their film online in May and it has since been downloaded and viewed everywhere from America to Israel and Cambodia.

It was recently screened to a packed house of 600 in the Canadian city of Toronto, and critics have dubbed the film “the secret of the food world”.

Not bad for a couple who had no background in filmmaking.

“It was good we went in green because if we had known what was involved there’s no way we would have done it,” James said.

The pair studied nutrition at the Global College of Natural Medicine in California before they started to write a book outlining the “life-saving information” they had learned about food.

“But we realised not everyone enjoys reading and decided film was a more efficient medium to have this message heard by a wider audience,” James said.

They decided to interview nutritionists they had admired through their studies, which took them on a journey from France to Holland, the UK, America and finally Australia.

Food Matters has been labelled controversial because of its message that the right foods can help prevent chronic illness and even cancer.

The couple advocate drinking lots of water and freshly squeezed vegetable juice, and eating local organic produce as well as barley grass, wheat grass and raw cacao.

The couple are off to New Zealand for screenings before they travel to the US next month for more promotional activities.

More: www.foodmatters.tv