The Game Changers

Director: Louie Psihoyos
Screenwriters: Mark Monroe, Joseph Pace

Institute History

  • 2018 Sundance Film Festival

Description

When UFC star James Wilks is injured, his desire to heal leads him on a deep dive into how plant-based diets can improve physical performance. Academy Award winner Louie Psihoyos (The Cove) interviews experts and athletes like U.S. Olympian Kendrick James Farris and surfer Tia Blanco, demolishing myths against plant-based diets along the way. The Game Changers explores innovative research on male athletes and—you wouldn’t have guessed it—their nocturnal erections, upending years of targeted marketing, corporatism, and antiquated notions of masculinity, all of which have manufactured society’s addiction to meat.

In this documentary, plant-based diets are also shown to have a significant impact on our environment—the film subtly evolves from a narrative around nutrition into a discussion around climate change, arguing that the decision to reduce meat consumption is perhaps the most profound choice an individual can make to reduce their impact on the earth. Timely and decisive, The Game Changers captures a defining cultural moment in our relationship to food, offering at its heart a message of positivity and personal agency.

— H.C.

Screening Details

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