Previous Community Cinema Filmmaker Byron Hurt Turns Lens on Soul Food

This month marks National Nutrition Month –– an annual campaign sponsored by the American Dietetic Association designed to focus attention on the importance of making informed food choices and developing sound eating and physical activity habits. ITVS recently funded filmmaker Byron Hurt (Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes was a SMASH hit at Community Cinema screenings nationwide) for his latest documentary Soul Food Junkies, which explores the health advantages and disadvantages of soul food –– a quintessential American cuisine. Read Byron’s blog post below to get his personal connection to the subject.

In 2007, my father passed away from pancreatic cancer. One of the many factors leading to pancreatic cancer is a high fat, meat-based diet. My father’s diet consisted of both. While I am not certain that my father’s diet alone contributed to his disease, his illness capped off what had been my lifelong concern for him: his health.

From the earliest time that I can remember, my father was overweight. He loved to eat and he particularly loved soul food. He also loved fast food and sugary desserts, like many people do. Growing up, I wanted to be just like my father so I ate what he ate: grits and eggs covered with cheese and topped with bits of salt pork and bacon for breakfast; overcooked collard greens seasoned with ham hocks, fried pork chops, macaroni and cheese, fried chicken, or other delicious but fatty foods right out of the black southern tradition.

In college, though, I began to slowly change my eating habits after learning more about how to eat healthy. I stopped eating red meat and pork and did my best to avoid greasy fried foods. On weekends, when I came home from college, I began to confront my father about his eating habits, often to no avail. I’d challenge him about his food choices. He’d ridicule me for no longer eating beef or pork. We had several tense conversations about his weight. My family and I were concerned he would one day suffer a heart attack or a stroke. We wanted my dad to live a long, healthy life so he could be here to one day meet his grandchildren. Eventually he would make small changes to his diet and began to exercise more, but unfortunately the changes came too late in his life. Doctors diagnosed him with terminal pancreatic cancer and he died at the young age of 63. He never got a chance to meet his first grandchild.

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Tags: Byron Hurt, health, hip hop, hip hop: beyond beats and rhymes, nutrition, soul food