Join Ceres Food x Film and The Neighborhood at Brooklyn Art Haus for an evening of food, film, and conversation centered around Orna & Ella, Tomer Heymann’s intimate documentary about a restaurant of the same name, the two women who built it, and what it means to let go of a place that has defined your life.

The pioneering woman-owned neighborhood institution helped set a new standard for dining in Israel: serious about its food without being formal or fancy, with everything from bread and pasta to ice cream made in-house. During the restaurant’s final week, director Tomer Heymann (who had worked at Orna & Ella for six years) documented its final days. What he captured is an intimate portrait of lifelong friends and business partners at the apex of a bittersweet farewell.

After the film, you’ll get to taste some of its food made by Naama Tamir of Lighthouse BK, for whom the restaurant was an integral part of growing up in Tel Aviv! Naama will draw from the Orna & Ella cookbooks to prepare a selection of vegetarian bites, including the much-revered sweet potato pancakes. Naama will also present the food, share her memories of Orna & Ella, its influence, and her own experience as a female restaurateur.

Guests are invited to stay, mingle, and continue enjoying drinks available at the bar through 9:00 PM.

When: Wednesday, November 4
Time: 6:30 PM
Where: Brooklyn Art Haus
Want a taste first? Watch the trailer
General Admission: $40

Your ticket includes admission to the screening and food by Naama Tamir of Lighthouse. Drinks will be available for purchase from the Brooklyn Art Haus bar.

Get tickets

Evening Program:

• 6:30 PM: Doors open. Drinks & gathering in the Brooklyn Art Haus gallery and bar

• 7:00-8:00 PM: Screening of Orna & Ella

• 8:00 PM: Food and Conversation with Naama Tamir of Lighthouse

• 8:20-9:00 PM: Drinks, food, mingling, and reception

More on Orna & Ella

Directed by Tomer Heymann (53 min)

Twenty-six years after the iconic “Orna and Ella” restaurant opened in Tel Aviv, having become a celebrated culinary institution, Orna Agmon and Ella Shine decided to close their shared life’s work. During the restaurant’s final week, director Tomer Heymann —who worked there for six years and for whom it was much more than just a workplace— documents the intense dynamics of the last days.

Farewells to customers, recipes, and staffspark intimate and once-in-a-lifetime conversations. The film reveals the complex relationship between these two groundbreaking women through a spectrum of powerful emotions: love, dependence, conflicting desires, and fears. It boldly raises questions aboutself-fulfillment, the cost of freedom, and nostalgia for an era that will never return.

Get tickets

Hope to see you there!

Warmly,

Maayan and the Ceres team

PS: From our friends at the Infinite Table

Maayan loved The Infinite Table’s Oaxaca: Tierra y Tiempo. It brings the flavors and landscapes of Oaxaca, Mexico, to life through 360° cinema, spatial sound, scent, and a tasting menu. Catch this immersive dining experience in the Meatpacking District before it closes for the season.

^{At Ceres, we’re drawn to films that explore the relationships behind our food. Behind what we eat. Through the Ceres Collection, we are creating a growing home for films that deserve a longer life - stories that can be watched from anywhere, at any time.}

Dear Friends,

We’re excited to share the newest film in the Ceres Collection: One of a Kind, directed by Belgian filmmaker Jonas Buysens (Runtime: 8 mins).

Jonas first came across Antoine in an article: a retired artisan making knives for some of the world’s best Michelin-starred kitchens, working out of a garden shed. He made a curious phone call. That call turned into long afternoons of conversation that led to the making of One of a Kind.

Watch the Film

Want a taste first? Watch the trailer.

Film Synopsis

In a dimly lit workshop tucked into his garden, Antoine, a retired artisan, shapes knives by hand from materials most people would have thrown away. One of a Kind follows the making of a single blade, from a cobwebbed shed to the pass of Kobe Desramault’s Michelin-starred kitchen, where the chef awaits the reveal of a tool built to elevate every plate it touches. What emerges is a quiet portrait of mastery and second lives. Proof that something used before can still belong where nothing short of perfection will do. A short documentary about craft, trust, and the beauty hiding in the overlooked.

Why We Chose This Film

One of a Kind is slow and meditative, beautifully shot, and almost entirely focused on the pleasure of watching someone who has spent decades mastering a craft at work.

We were also drawn to Antoine’s solitary work, in the company of nature, repurposing discarded steel and wood into items that end up in a very fancy kitchen. It’s a pleasure to see the quiet dedication to making and perfecting one item at a time, and later, the encounter between these two different forms of craft at the table.

Watch One of a Kind, explore the other films in the Ceres Collection, and stay tuned as more films are released throughout the year.

Warmest,
Maayan and the Ceres Team

P.S. A Look Back at Tomatoes, Spirits, and Cinema 🍅

Last Monday, we explored food waste through film, conversation, and, of course, by eating and drinking, within the beautiful community space of Farm.One.

We’re grateful to our filmmakers for sharing their work; to Wen-Jay Ying for creating the beautiful food we shared; to Joe McDowell for distilling a tomato spirit just for the evening; and to Jerusha Klemperer for guiding the conversation with so much ease and depth.

Photos + Panel

See photos from the evening →

Watch the full panel conversation →

More

The evening introduced us to many different approaches to rethinking food waste. Here are a few organizations brought up in the conversation that we wanted to share, and an extra one from our team:

• Afterlife Ag
  Makes it easier for restaurants and other food establishments to upcycle food scraps, transforming them into fresh, locally grown mushrooms.

• Reclamation Foods
  Makes Korean-style bone broths that support regenerative agriculture and whole-animal nourishment.

• Matriark Foods
  Upcycles farm surplus and fresh-cut remnants into food for food service, retail, and emergency food.

• Maine Garum Co.
  Makes fish sauce using underutilized seafood, including invasive species such as green crab (Ceres!)

Director’s Statement - One of a Kind

I first came across Antoine in an article: a retired man making knives for some of the world’s best Michelin-starred kitchens, working out of a garden shed. I couldn’t leave it there. A curious phone call turned into long afternoons of conversation, and the more I listened, the more I realised the knives were only the surface of the story.

What pulled me in was the duality of it all. Antoine builds objects of real beauty in a shed full of cobwebs, out of materials most people would have thrown away. Then those same objects end up on the tables of the finest restaurants in the world, where guests pay hundreds of euros for a single meal shaped, in part, by his hands. That contrast, the humble workshop and the rarefied dining room, the discarded and the treasured, felt like something worth sitting with.

Antoine himself is a character: a craftsman with deeply rooted values, and a bit of a rebel, and the chefs he works with know it. That stubbornness is exactly what makes those relationships so special. There’s a trust there that can’t be manufactured. Filming him, I kept thinking this is what mastery actually looks like. Not polish or branding, but decades of care poured into doing one thing properly.

More than anything, I hope his story opens up a conversation about circularity and what we choose to value. Just because something has been used before doesn’t mean its life is over. Antoine proves it again and again: his “second-hand” materials find a home in places where the entire experience is meant to be flawless. There’s a quiet argument about sustainability, yes, but also about worth, and how easily we write things off.

If audiences take one thing from the film, I’d love it to be that small shift in how they see what’s around them, the possibility hiding in the overlooked. And, selfishly, I hope that one day I get to share a meal with Antoine and Kobe, and taste the full experience their two crafts create together.

- Jonas Buysens

Dear Friends,

This Monday at Farm.One, we’re gathering to reimagine food waste and talk about it together. The tomato is our starting point.

Wen-Jay Ying of Local Roots is creating a living grazing table for the evening, while the ever-innovative Joe McDowell of Acid Spirits has custom distilled a Tomato Spirit that will be featured in the cocktails. And every guest will leave with a gift of a 4 oz bottle of it to take home in a classy Ceres tote.

Tickets

To get us all more excited

We wanted to share two short videos where Joe and Wen-Jay show us a bit about their craft.

Watch: Joe from Acid Spirits

Watch: Wen-Jay's Grazing Table

An evening designed to move through

The same theme runs through the three short films we’ll screen Monday: from an ode to the tomato, to the UK’s first fine-dining zero-waste restaurant, to discarded clam shells transformed into sculptural objects.

The full short film program will screen twice in a dedicated screening space, at 6:20 PM and 6:40 PM, leaving guests free to choose a screening while enjoying food, drinks, and conversation throughout the evening.

At 7 PM, the evening comes together for a conversation moderated by FoodPrint director Jerusha Klemperer with Wen-Jay and Joe, exploring what it takes to rethink waste across our food system. Afterward, the bar and grazing table stay open until 8:30, with time to keep drinking, eating, and talking.

More details and tickets here.

Get Tickets

Hope to see you there!

Warmly,
Maayan and the Ceres team

There’s a tomato at the center of this evening—but the conversation is much bigger.

Dear friends,

On September 14, from 6–8 PM, we’ll gather at Farm.One in Brooklyn, a community space and vertical farm growing herbs, flowers, and greens in the heart of the city. We’ll spend the evening moving between films, food, drinks, and conversation, exploring the ways imagination can shift our relationship to waste, and to the food systems we’ve built around us.

We couldn’t be happier to share this evening with you, and hope you’ll join us.

When: Monday, September 14

Time: 6:00 - 8:30 pm

Where: Farm.One Brooklyn

RSVP

About this event

Ceres and Farm.One invite you to an evening inspired by the tomato, bringing together Wen-Jay Ying, founder of Local Roots, and Joe McDowell, founder of sustainable spirits company ACID, for a collaborative food and drink experience.

Throughout the evening, we’ll screen three short films exploring sustainability, resourcefulness, and closed-loop food systems—from an ode to the tomato, to the UK’s first fine-dining zero-waste restaurant, to a story of transformation from sea to table.

Your ticket includes the Local Roots living grazing table and one cocktail or mocktail featuring ACID spirits. Additional beverages will be available for purchase at the Farm.One bar.

Films and the evening

Amoris Pomum, Directed by Felipe Sanguinetti · 4 min

Narrated by Argentine actor Ricardo Darín and featuring words from a 1971 poem by Pablo Neruda, this lush short is an ode to the beauty, complexity, and fleeting nature of the tomato.

A Failure of the Imagination, Directed by Matt Hopkins · 10 min

Following five years at Silo, the UK’s first fine-dining zero-waste restaurant, the film traces chef Douglas McMaster’s effort to challenge the unsustainable practices of the modern food system by reimagining what a restaurant can be.

Fragmentos de Mar, Directed by Wolf Lass · 7 min

Discarded clam shells from Mexico City restaurant Contramar’s signature ceviche are transformed into sculptural objects and lighting, tracing a journey from sea to table, and from table to new forms.

The short film program will screen twice in an adjoining space, making it easy to move between the films and the food and drink experience.

Following the films, FoodPrint director Jerusha Klemperer will moderate a conversation with Wen-Jay Ying and Joe McDowell about the challenges of transforming our food system—and the imagination it takes to do so.

Get tickets

And there’s a little something to take home: every ticket includes a Ceres tote bag with a complimentary 4 oz bottle of Tomato ACID, crafted and distilled exclusively for the evening. A few lucky guests will find additional Ceres merch tucked inside their totes, too.

Come for the tomato. Stay for the films, the questions, and the possibility of imagining food differently.

Warmly,

Maayan and the Ceres team

^{At Ceres, we’re drawn to films that explore the relationships behind our food. Behind what we eat. Through the Ceres Collection, we are creating a growing home for films that deserve a longer life - stories that can be watched from anywhere, at any time.}

Dear Friends,

We’re excited to share the newest film in the Ceres Collection: HASIK, directed by Mandy Qua and Marissa Mejia.

Recipient of the 2025 Ceres Spirit Award for Food Justice, jurors recognized HASIK for its thoughtful introduction to the seed savers in the Philippines who are working to protect indigenous seeds and the knowledge, traditions, and agricultural heritage connected to them.

Watch the Film

Want a taste first? Watch the trailer.

Film Synopsis

This documentary feature film shares the stories of seed savers from across the three regions of the Philippines - Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Despite encountering various systemic barriers, these farmers persist in their seed-saving practices as a way of preserving native biodiversity and passing knowledge from one generation to the next.

For these farmers, saving seeds also means preserving languages, traditions, histories, and ways of life that have been cultivated alongside them for generations.

Why We Chose This Film

It is remarkable how much a seed can hold. Within something so small are generations of adaptation, memory, and care.

HASIK is a movie that takes its time, unapologetically. It is all the more remarkable knowing that HASIK is the debut feature from first-time filmmakers Mandy Qua and Marissa Mejia.

Reflecting on childhood memories of gardening with her grandmother, Marissa realized that despite years spent collaborating with nonprofits to tell the stories of conservationists around the world, she had never told an environmental story rooted in her own Filipina heritage. We loved their Director’s Statement and included it in full at the end of this newsletter.

Watch HASIK, explore the other films in the Ceres Collection, and stay tuned as more films are released throughout the year.

Warmest,
Maayan and the Ceres Team

P.S. We have some exciting things coming this fall! We’ll be gathering for an upcoming Climate focused Ceres event, with tickets going on sale next week. And, to celebrate the season and say thank you to our wonderful community, we’ll also be hosting a giveaway. Stay tuned for all the details, and don’t forget to follow us on Instagram, where we’ll be sharing more about the event and giveaway. 🍂

Director Statement - HASIK

HASIK (“To Sow”) began as a search for connection—to land, to culture, to story. While at university, Mandy Qua, who grew up in the Philippines, joined an inaugural group that launched The Seed Farm at Princeton: an interdisciplinary space where students grow rare, culturally significant crops in collaboration with Indigenous and historically marginalized community partners. It was through this work that Mandy first encountered seed saving and the idea of “seed stories”—ancestral and personal narratives carried through seeds that tie people to land, heritage, and memory. This experience planted a deep desire in her to explore these themes artistically, leading her to create an original dance work featuring a diverse, all-Filipino cast united by a shared desire to uncover their seed stories. Marissa Mejia, one of the dancers, became a close friend—and together, they began imagining how these stories might live beyond the stage.

During rehearsals for Mandy’s piece, when asked to reflect on her personal seed stories, Marissa was drawn back to her grandmother’s backyard—a tropical oasis tucked away amongst the manicured lawns of coastal Virginia. Thousands of miles from her family in the Philippines, Marissa’s grandmother carefully sowed the seeds of plants that brought her the colors, fragrances, and tastes of home. While reflecting on her favorite memories of spending time in the garden with her grandmother, Marissa realized that, despite years of collaborating with nonprofits to tell the stories of conservationists from communities across the globe, she had yet to share environmental stories rooted in her own Filipina heritage.

As Marissa shared these reflections with Mandy, the conversation unearthed a mutual realization—while Marissa had never told the stories of Filipino environmentalists, Mandy knew more about plants in New Jersey than those from her own home country. Together, we began to imagine a project that could help us reconnect with our cultural and agricultural roots. We applied for—and fortunately received—the inaugural Princeton ReachOut Herbert C. Paschen, Jr. ’56 Fellowship, which allowed us to complete a public service project in collaboration with our selected nonprofit organization, Global Seed Savers, Inc. As we performed research in preparation for our project, we noticed a gap in existing documentaries on seed saving—many were rich with science and data, but they often missed the personal connections that ground this practice. Few centered the lived experiences of farmers, and even fewer featured Southeast Asian voices. HASIK was born out of that absence.

As we embarked on our filmmaking journey and spent time listening to, farming with, and learning from the farmers, we came to understand that seed saving is more than just an agricultural process. It is an act of environmental stewardship, cultural preservation, and reclaiming agency in food systems shaped by industrial and commercial forces. The farmers’ stories are deeply rooted in the diverse cultures and ecologies of the Philippines, but they resonate far beyond its borders as the challenges Filipino seed savers face echo global struggles over land and food sovereignty. With HASIK, we set out to honor that power through intentional collaboration—crafting a film shaped not just by our vision, but by the narratives the farmers themselves wished to center.

The process was not easy. Midway through production, we lost four out of six of our original farmer participants within 24 hours of each other. Although the circumstances were beyond our control—with government corruption, armed conflict, and death threats (none of which were directly relating to us or our project) coming into play—this forced us to pause, reflect, and reimagine our entire film. Though devastating, that turning point led us to a more emotional, complex, and powerful storyline than we had first envisioned.

The challenges surrounding seeds and food sovereignty are far-reaching. We don’t have the solutions, but by sharing the stories of the seed savers who welcomed us into their lives, we hope HASIK serves as an invitation for viewers to think more critically about the origins of their food, reflect on their personal or familial ties to seeds and land, and consider how they too might begin to sow seeds of care, resistance, and change in their own lives.

^{At Ceres, we’re drawn to films that explore the relationships behind our food, behind what we eat. Through the Ceres Collection, we are creating a growing home for films that deserve a longer life - stories that can be watched from anywhere, at any time.}

Dear Friends,

We are delighted to welcome RAMINI, directed by Subei Kyle (Runtime: 19 mins), to the Collection.

Watch the Film

Want a taste first? Watch the trailer.

Film Synopsis

Set on Ramini Mozzarella’s water buffalo farm in Tomales Bay, California, RAMINI offers an intimate look at a different approach to farming. Narrated by co-founder Audrey, the film follows the rhythms of daily life on the farm, revealing a practice rooted in care, patience, and respect for the animals at its heart.

RAMINI invites us to a look at what farming can look like when the well-being of animals and farmers is understood to be deeply interconnected.

Why We Chose This Film

Subei Kyle’s thoughtful and quiet filmmaking captures touching reciprocity between farmer and animal. We felt taken into a world that convincingly challenges conventional assumptions about what farming can be - and left inspired. We hope the same for you.

Watch RAMINI, explore the other films in the Ceres Collection, and stay tuned as more films are released throughout the year.

Warmest,
Maayan and the Ceres Team

P.S. We wanted to give a shoutout to Food Stories, a conversation card deck created by Abby Chava Stein to get people talking, playfully!, about the memories, relationships, and cultures behind what we eat. We played with them and here’s one of our favorite snippets.

We’ll be sharing a few more of these moments on Instagram, so follow along if you don’t already!

As summer winds down, we’re looking ahead to a new September gathering, new ways to help shape what comes next at Ceres, and another release from the Ceres Collection.

Coming This September

In the lead-up to Climate Week, we’ll be linking up with our friends at Farm.One, the indoor vertical farm in Prospect Heights, for an evening focused on low-waste eating and drinking.

Stay tuned for more details soon, including early bird tickets.

Help Build What Comes Next

Last summer, Ceres partnered with the Museum of Food and Drink for Flavor Decoded, an evening exploring how taste is shaped by science, culture, memory and perception. The MSG martinis were a hit, the peanut-butter-and-pickle sandwiches were surprisingly delicious, and we soaked in the panel wisdom.

As Ceres expands its year-round programming, there’s more room for companies, foundations, venues and community organizations to build something unique with us.

Partnership could look like:

• Host a screening in your space.

• Build a menu or a cocktail around a film.

• Support filmmaker participation or audience access.

Have an idea for a Ceres event, or interested in hosting or sponsoring one? Reach out to hq@ceresfilmfest.org

Support Ceres 🖤

Ceres is an initiative of Palms for Life Fund, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Donations help support filmmaker participation, venue and production costs, accessible public programming and the continued growth of the Ceres Collection

Support Ceres

Coming Next to the Ceres Collection

And our online collection keeps growing! Next Thursday, we’ll release another film from the Ceres archive, adding to the documentaries now available to watch anytime, for free.

Warmly,
Maayan and the Ceres team

^{At Ceres, we believe powerful food and environmental storytelling should not be limited to a single screening or festival week. Through the Ceres Collection, we are creating a growing home for films that deserve a longer life - stories that can be watched from anywhere, at any time.}

Dear Friends,

We are delighted to announce the latest addition to the Collection: School of Fish, directed by Oliver Sutro (Runtime: 24 mins).

Watch the Film

Film Synopsis

In Bristol Bay, Alaska, Indigenous communities have lived alongside salmon for thousands of years. But as the proposed Pebble Mine threatens one of the world’s last great wild salmon ecosystems, a new generation is learning that protecting their future means protecting the salmon that have sustained their communities for generations.

Through the story of one family’s seasonal salmon traditions and the Bristol Bay Guide Academy, School of Fish offers an intimate portrait of youth, conservation, and cultural resilience, exploring what is at stake when both an ecosystem and a way of life are under threat.

Why We Chose This Film

School of Fish reminds us the ways food carries knowledge, identity, and responsibility across generations. Oliver Sutro tells this story with quiet sensitivity and care.

Have a look at School of Fish, explore the other films in the Ceres Collection, and stay tuned as more films are released throughout the year.

Warmest,
Maayan and the Ceres Team

P.S. As always, we're planning more opportunities to gather around a table. Be on the lookout for a late-summer gathering, a special climate-focused program in September, and more. In the meantime, we invite you to check out New York Food Stories, a summer conversation series curated by Ceres producer Sari Kamin at the Kitchen Arts & Letters pop-up bookstore at 111 Broadway in Lower Manhattan.

At Ceres, we believe powerful food and environmental storytelling should not be limited to a single screening or festival week. Through the Ceres Collection, we are creating a growing home for films that deserve a longer life - stories that can be watched from anywhere, at any time.

We are delighted to announce the latest addition to the Collection: KǪ̀K’ETÌ: Walking with Caribou, directed by Chad Galloway (Runtime: 24 mins).

Watch the Film

Film Synopsis

For generations, the Bathurst caribou have been central to the lives, culture, and traditions of the Tłı̨chǫ people in Canada’s North. Over the past three decades, the herd’s population has declined dramatically, raising urgent questions about climate change, industrial development, ecological balance, and the future of communities whose lives are deeply connected to the land.

In this moving documentary, Tłı̨chǫ knowledge holders and community members return to ancestral hunting grounds, walking alongside the caribou as they struggle for survival. The film offers a powerful reflection on stewardship, resilience, and the enduring relationship between people, wildlife, and place.

Why We Chose This Film

Chad Gallloway is one of the most intentional directors we have been lucky to encounter. KǪ̀K’ETÌ: Walking with Caribou is intimate, community-specific, and socially meaningful. Chad is dedicated to sharing underrepresented stories, and this one, connecting the decline of the Bathurst caribou to larger questions of culture, food, land, and survival, is so very beautifully done.

Watch KǪ̀K’ETÌ: Walking with Caribou now, explore the other films already available in the Ceres Collection, join the conversation, and stay tuned as more films are released throughout the year.

Warmest,
Maayan and the Ceres Team

P.S. If you’ll be at The Great Nosh this weekend, come say hello. We will be there celebrating Jewish food, storytelling, and community.

Happy June from Ceres!

Two weeks ago, filmmakers, food lovers, booksellers, seed savers, and members of the Ceres community gathered at BEM | books & more for an evening of conversation, drinks, and seed sharing. It was wonderful to reconnect with longtime members of the Ceres community and welcoming new faces into the fold.

We were thrilled to welcome Leigh Ollman of the NYU Seed Library, who shared heirloom seeds from the library’s collection and spoke about the importance of seed saving and biodiversity.

We are especially grateful to Gabrielle and Danielle Davenport for welcoming us into their beautiful space. Part bookstore, café, and culinary hub, BEM | books & more sits at the intersection of Black food, literature, and culture. If you haven’t visited yet, we encourage you to stop by and explore their incredible collection of Black food writing and cookbooks. You can also relax in their cozy café, admire the Edna Lewis Garden Bed on the patio, and attend one of their many outstanding author talks and culinary events. Be sure to follow them on Instagram at @bembrooklyn.

Thank you to everyone who joined us in celebrating the close of our Season 10 Festival and the opening of submissions for Season 11!

Ceres on YouTube

We’re bringing conversations around food and our different connections to it online through a series of film releases, filmmaker interviews, and panel discussions. These stories will be available year-round, creating new opportunities to engage with the ideas that have shaped Ceres over the past decade.

Throughout the summer, new releases will explore themes including food and identity, migration, memory, labor, climate, and community.

Subscribe on YouTube

Looking Ahead

Ceres continues to grow beyond the annual festival through screenings, gatherings, and digital programming throughout the year.

We’ve been busy planning a lineup of exciting events for the months ahead, and look forward to sharing more soon.

Season 11 submissions remain open, and we’re excited to discover the next group of filmmakers whose work will spark meaningful conversations around food and culture.

Submit a Food Film

Warmly,
Maayan and the Ceres Team

Season 11 submissions are open. Come celebrate with us.

Sips, Seeds, & Stories

On May 28, we’re gathering at BEM | books & more in Bed-Stuy. BEM is the nation’s first Black food bookstore, café, and culinary hub, founded by Gabrielle and Danielle Davenport.

We’re excited to be joined by our friends at the NYU Seed Library, a community seed-saving initiative exploring biodiversity and the future of our food system. Bring seeds to share or swap if you have them!

Come for a drink, browse an incredible selection of cookbooks and Black food literature, and help us toast the future of Ceres.

Wednesday, May 28
5–7 PM
BEM | books & more
373 Lewis Ave, Brooklyn

RSVP

Coming Up

We’ll also be releasing films from the Ceres archive on YouTube this summer through our Ceres Collection series as well as Season 10 panels. So you’ll be hearing more from us very soon. If you haven’t yet, join our growing community!

Subscribe to Ceres on YouTube

Photo Gallery: Season X

Until then, enjoy perusing some of our fav moments from April.

And many more...

Warmly,
Maayan and the Ceres Team

Happy Earth Day! One more day to catch a food doc in our virtual lineup!

In honor of this year’s theme “Our Power, Our Planet,” how about….

Paved Paradise | Runtime: 90 mins ← BRILLIANT feature

We’ve been told organic farming is the answer. A Dutch biologist isn’t so sure. Because organic farming needs far more land to grow the same amount of food, there’s less room left for nature, and agricultural land already covers 40% of the planet’s surface. Biologist Hidde Boersma and filmmaker Karsten de Vreugd set out to investigate what a real alternative might look like. Upbeat, eye-opening, and genuinely charming. 🏆 Ceres Season 8 Best Feature.

Watch

Walking with Plants | Runtime: 23 mins

Leigh Joseph (co-director) grew up far from her ancestral lands in British Columbia. Her path back, through academic study, ethnobotany, and the plants themselves, is what this film follows. An Indigenous woman guided home by the landscape. 🏆 Ceres Season 7 Best Short.

Watch

Dune Forest | Runtime: 13 mins

Landscape architect Louis De Jaeger spends seven years transforming a barren sand dune into a thriving food forest, composting, nutrient recycling, coaxing life out of infertile ground. Gorgeous in its simplicity and so very inspiring.

Watch

School of Fish | Runtime: 19 mins

In Bristol Bay, Alaska, Indigenous people and salmon have been intertwined for thousands of years. But Pebble Mine is coming, and now the kids learning to fish from their elders also have to learn to fight for the water itself. An intimate portrait of one family.

Watch

We also invite you to browse the full program, before it disappears at midnight…

Warmly,
Maayan and the Ceres Team

This past week, we delightedly gathered across New York for screenings, conversations, and shared meals.

If you missed it, or want more, the festival continues online.

To mark ten years, we’ve brought together a retrospective of the films that stayed with us and reshaped how we think about food.

A few to start with:

The Grace: A salmon fisherwoman fights to sustain both her livelihood and the ocean she depends on, one season at a time.

Arepas en Bici: From Miami kitchens to San Francisco streets: a Venezuelan chef who found his footing through biking and cooking.

4DWN: A South Dallas skatepark becomes a lifeline—part skate hub, part urban farm, reshaping a community through food and grit.

Food Soldiers: Across West Africa, farmers and entrepreneurs confront a growing food crisis—building new systems from the ground up.

Paved Paradise: A sharp, unexpectedly funny look at biodiversity loss—and the surprising solutions hiding in plain sight.

Start watching the retrospective:

Prefer to browse first?

We put together a playlist on our YouTube channel with trailers from this season.

Browse food trailers

While we have you:

• Farm to People, who catered our MoMI reception, is offering $25 off your first Farm Box with code CERES2026.

• ACQ Bread Company, whose bread was featured at MoMI, runs a CSA. Details here.

• Katfish Salmon Co.: Kat Murphy of The Grace fishes for salmon and lingcod in Southeast Alaska using traditional hook-and-line: one fish at a time. Find her catch here.

Warmly,
Maayan and the Ceres Team

From mooncakes on Friday, to a decade of drinks at Beer Street South, to the delicious and inspiring events at MoMI and MOFAD, Season 10 has been delivering beyond what we hoped for.

But we’re not done yet.

Tonight: Rooted in Community

At UnionDocs in Ridgewood, we bring together five films about the ways food anchors neighborhoods, cultures, and lives. We’ll be pouring spirits from Acid Spirits, serving brownies, ice-cream and beautiful films and conversations.

💚💚💚 Tickets: $18 13 by using this code: ceres<3filmfood

Tickets

Tomorrow: Wild Things

At NYU Steinhardt Food Lab. We close out our in-person week with a dive into foraging, including tastings from Chef Abe Konick and Amy Rothstein of Dona Chai. This one is free.

RSVP

Two more nights! We so hope you join us.

Warmly,
Maayan and the Ceres Team

Season 10 is here. NYU Culture Fest is tomorrow; RSVPs are closed, but the festival is just getting started:

Saturday | Craft Beer | 3-5pm

Ten seasons calls for a celebration. Good people, good beer, the kind of conversation that happens when food and film people find each other. Come by.

Celebrate with us

Sunday | Hyper-local Bread | 2:30-6pm

Food, Closeup. An afternoon of short documentaries, from grains, to salmon, to caribou, and a midnight snail hunt in Taiwan, followed by a panel and reception at 4:30 with bites from Brooklyn Granary, Farm to People, and ACQ Bread Company.

Free, RSVP, First come, First Served

More next week. Until then, come find us this weekend.

Warmest,
Maayan & the Ceres Team

Season 10 opens April 10. There’s a lot below. We recommend reserving your spot, as many events are filling quickly.

Without further ado, a few tastes of what’s coming:

April 10 | Live Mooncake Demo | 1:00-3:00pm

Christine Wong has built a following by rethinking Hong Kong cuisine through a plant-based lens. Vibrant Hong Kong Table traces how grief, identity, and the rise in anti-Asian hate pushed Christine deeper into her roots. After the screening, she’ll be in the room (mooncakes, live) and in conversation with Jenny Berg (Chair, Dept. of Nutrition and Food Studies) on food, identity, and tradition.

RSVP for Free

Here’s a look at Christine’s energy:

April 11 | New York Craft Beer Day | 3:00-5:00pm

Our happy hour at Beer Street South happens to fall on the 2nd annual New York Craft Beer Day. Who knew! But it’s true. Join us in a room full of good people worth meeting.

RSVP so we know you’re coming.

April 12 | Getting granular on local grains | 2:30-6:00pm

Bread, made from grain you can trace. Following the screenings at MoMI, Michael Robinov (Co-Founder, Farm to People) and Tyler Lee Steinbrenner (Founder, ACQ Bread Company) join Qiana Mickie (Executive Director, NYC Mayor’s Office of Urban Agriculture) for a conversation on local grains and sustainability.

RSVP *note first come, first served

Here’s a taste of Tyler’s philosophy:

April 13 | Migration on screen, arepas in the room. | 7:00-10:00pm

One of our all-time favorite shorts will be screening at MOFAD: Arepas en Bici follows a Venezuelan chef cycling across San Francisco, carrying memory, migration, and a business in motion. Included: drinks, arepas, access to MOFAD’s current exhibition on New York City street food, and connecting with good people.

A few spots left

April 14 | A bakery, a hiring model, a neighborhood | 7:30-10:00pm

Zen Brownie, narrated by Jeff Bridges, tells the story of a Yonkers bakery built on one principle: hire anyone who shows up. It’s a simple idea with real consequences for work, dignity, and community.

The night expands into tracing how food connects to climate and sovereignty (Seaweed Stories), alongside films rooted in Ridgewood (Ice Cream Window and Barriga Llena, Corazón Contento).

Tickets

April 15 | Foraging, and the person who knows all about it | 7:00pm-10:00pm

Found: The King of Matsutake Ridge follows chef Philip Manganaro into landscapes most people never see. He’ll be there, in conversation with mushroom expert Leigh Ollman. Included: screenings, tastings by Acid Spirits, bites by Chef Abe Konick and Hieu Huynh, chai tea by Dona Chai, and good people.

Free, limited spots, RSVP

Warmly,
Maayan and the Ceres Team

PS: The virtual festival follows April 16-22; more on that soon.

🍭 If you're not following us yet: Instagram

Dear Friends,

Ten years in, this season traces the stories, systems, and communities that shape how we eat. We invite you into a series of intimate, limited-capacity gatherings:

April 10 | Screening + Live Mooncake Demo

We open at NYU with a screening of the Vibrant Hong Kong Table, directed by Liza de Guia, following James Beard–nominated chef and cookbook author Christine Wong as she reimagines Hong Kong cuisine through a plant-based lens. Presented in collaboration with NYU Steinhardt’s Department of Nutrition and Food Studies and the NYU SPS Tisch Center of Hospitality, the afternoon brings together film, scholarship, and hands-on culinary practice. Wong joins for a conversation with Jenny Berg, Chair of Nutrition and Food Studies at NYU Steinhardt, followed by a live mooncake demo and tasting. Free, open to all.

Register

🍻 April 11 | Industry Happy Hour

An informal industry afternoon gathering at Beer Street South, a spacious, light-filled bar known for its rotating selection of small-batch and hard-to-find beers. Filmmakers, producers, and food people in conversation in the same room. Co-hosted with our friends at Slow Food NYC.

RSVP

April 12 | Food, Closeup at MoMI + Reception

At the Museum of the Moving Image, MoMI, Food, Closeup unfolds as part of the museum’s Open Worlds program.

Four short documentaries explore how we grow, harvest, and sustain what we eat, from urban wheat to Indigenous foodways, caribou herds, and small-scale fishing.

Stay for a conversation moderated by Qiana Mickie, Executive Director of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Urban Agriculture, with Michael Robinov, Co-Founder and CEO of Farm to People.

Reception to follow with focaccia from Brooklyn Granary & Mill (working exclusively with regional grains to revive local milling traditions), alongside a spread from Farm to People featuring seasonal crudités, hummus, and bread from She Wolf and Knead Love. MoMI’s cafe will be open for a casual happy hour.

Free, Registration required

April 13 | MOFAD: Food, Film, & Migration + Tastings

We return to the Museum of Food and Drink, MOFAD, where guests will also have the chance to explore the museum’s current exhibition on New York City’s food vendors and street food culture, alongside tasty bites and drinks throughout the evening.

The evening centers on food as movement, migration, and memory. Featuring Arepas en Bici — one of our favorite films! — and Birria Landia, profiling the Queens-based food truck by brothers José and Jesús Moreno that became a defining force in New York’s taco scene.

Followed by a conversation with Krishnendu Ray, a leading food studies scholar and author of The Ethnic Restaurateur; Sarah K. Khan, an interdisciplinary artist and researcher working at the intersection of migration, identity, and food systems; and chef Esneider Arevalo (Culinary Backstreets), who leads food tours through Jackson Heights and Corona, sharing the immigrant food cultures of Queens.

Tickets | $30

April 14 | UnionDocs: Films, Community, & Conversation

In Ridgewood, we partner with UnionDocs and Push Projects for an evening of films and conversation exploring how food operates as culture, infrastructure, and memory.

The program includes Zen Brownie, narrated by Jeff Bridges, telling the story of Greyston Bakery, whose brownies are famously used in Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, and its pioneering open hiring model; Seaweed Stories, narrated by Forest Whitaker, on seaweed’s role in climate and sovereignty; Barriga Llena, Corazón Contento, rooted in a Ridgewood food pantry shaped by migration and care; alongside Ice Cream Window, capturing neighborhood ritual, and Guguta, a meditation on memory and inheritance.

The evening concludes with a conversation featuring Jordana Rubenstein-Edberg and Natalia Fuentes of Barriga Llena, Corazón Contento, moderated by Molly Surno, founder of Push Projects.

A tasting from Acid Spirits, known for vacuum-distilled botanical spirits made from upcycled ingredients, rounds out the night.

Tickets | $18

April 15 | Wild Things: Foraging, Fungi, & Tastings

At NYU Steinhardt, Wild Things closes the season with an evening devoted to foraging, fungi, and the people who spend their lives listening to the land at the NYU Food Lab.

The program features Found: The King of Matsutake Ridge, with chef and forager Philip Manganaro, alongside Dune Forest and Rice and Grits by filmmaker and NYU Food Studies alum Hieu Huynh, whose work explores culinary identity and inheritance. A conversation follows with Philip Manganaro and mushroom expert and food systems advocate Leigh Ollman.

The evening features tasty bites inspired by the evening’s films prepared by the lovely chef Abe Konick, MasterChef: Legends finalist, alongside beverages from Dona Chai, a New York–based, small-batch chai company known for direct sourcing and traditional brewing methods, and tastings by Joe McDowell of Acid Spirits.

Free, RSVP required

Highlights include:

A Venezuelan chef cycling across San Francisco with arepas and a dream. Two brothers from Puebla who turned a Queens food truck into a New York institution. (Arepas en Bici, Birria Landia)

Sheffield residents asking the most radical question imaginable: what if a city grew its own wheat? (Grain City)

The Tłı̨chǫ people, the Bathurst caribou herd, down from half a million to fewer than ten thousand, and what disappears with them. (K’ÒK’ÈTÌ: Walking with Caribou)

Jeff Bridges narrates the story of a Yonkers bakery run by Buddhist monks on a simple principle: hire anyone who shows up. (Zen Brownie)

Chef and forager Philip Manganaro, hunting matsutake mushrooms in secret. (Found: The King of Matsutake Ridge)

Explore the full lineup and reserve

Warmly,
Maayan and the Ceres Team

April is coming, and so is Ceres.

After nine seasons in the fall, Season 10 opens this spring: April 10–15 in New York City, followed by a week of virtual programming April 16–22.

This year is a soft opening: a curated program drawn from nine seasons of Ceres films, placed in new rooms with new conversations.

Six Events

The week takes us across the city: NYU in Washington Square, Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI) in Astoria, the Museum of Food & Drink (MOFAD) in Brooklyn, UnionDocs in Ridgewood, and a celebratory happy hour at Beer Street South in Brooklyn for Ceres friends, old and new.

The schedule is live and growing ★

Films, panels, and all tickets releasing in the coming weeks. For now, you can snag a ticket to MOFAD. Did anyone say Arepas?

View the program →

New on YouTube: Grazed Right

In the meantime, this one is worth your Friday.

Grazed Right, dir. Ben Hemmings, follows environmentalist ranchers in Alberta bucking tradition and adopting regenerative practices, looking to cattle farming not as a climate problem but as part of the solution, preserving North America’s endangered native grasslands in the process.

Watch it here

Warmly,
Maayan and the Ceres Team

Happy New Year!

We have news. Ceres is moving to spring.

After nine seasons in the fall, Season 10 will soft open in April 2026 - a season of emergence, openness, and new growth. Our tenth year of stories worth telling. We’re excited to meet you there.

Programming and dates coming soon. The thrill! ✨

Fresh on YouTube

While we’re gearing up for spring, we’ve been adding films to The Ceres Collection on YouTube - bringing some of our favorite festival discoveries to your screen.

Two recent additions we’re excited to share:

Great Wall (dir. Rioin Oshiro) - This 2024 James Beard Award winner follows a Chinese-American woman from two generations of restaurant owners who discovers her true calling opening a dim sum restaurant. It’s slow, gorgeous filmmaking - the kind that lets you sink into a place and its people, exploring the weight of family expectations and finding your own path.

Grandma’s Food (dir. Luisa Macedo) - Two grandmothers: one left behind a recipe notebook, the other kept recipes in her head. Through their memories, the director explores social and racial inequality, gender, food, and what gets written down versus what gets remembered.

Each film in the Collection explores the complex role food plays in our lives - from culture and identity to climate and community. We’re here to share storytelling that stays with you ❤️

Ceres Collection on YouTube

Ceres Filmmaker Residency | Costa Rica

Ceres alum filmmakers are invited to enter for a chance to win a free residency at Toji Nature Retreat in Costa Rica: a space dedicated to food sovereignty, regenerative community models, and time spent paying attention.

The dates of the retreat will run May 17–23, 2026. For applicants with additional time, the residency may include an extended stay in Toji’s tree house, offering space to observe the surrounding nature reserve and community while gathering ideas and inspiration.

Toji’s Dos Colinas community is the first expression of its OG Villages model, blending indigenous practices and permaculture with contemporary innovation to support realistic, sustainable development. Filmmakers interested in eco-villages and movements toward sovereignty are especially encouraged to apply.

Free to enter. One filmmaker will be selected and will receive a partial travel credit.

Learn more and apply here

With warmth and gratitude,

Maayan and the Ceres Team

Happy Thursday! The holidays are here, and we’re in the mood to gather.

🥂 Holiday Happy Hour at Farm.One

Thursday, December 18th | 6-8pm Farm.One | 625 Bergen St, Brooklyn, NY 11238

Join us on Thursday, December 18th from 6-8pm for a cosy, casual Ceres holiday happy hour hang at the beautiful Farm.One (625 Bergen St, Brooklyn, NY 11238). This is an open invitation to everyone in the Ceres community and to friends of the festival. All are welcome, so come grab a drink, bring a friend and say hi!

If you haven’t been to Farm.One, you’re in for a treat. It’s an indoor hydroponic farm and bar in Brooklyn, growing unique herbs and edible plants for chefs and drink-makers. Think: hidden gem vibes, beautiful greenery, and a perfect spot to unwind.

We’ll have Ceres goodies to raffle off throughout the evening - tote bags, wine, beer, and a few other delicious surprises.

And if you’re feeling competitive, Farm.One’s trivia starts at 7pm, so stick around after happy hour and join the fun.

We’d love to see you there. 🙂

New in The Ceres Collection

Our latest Ceres Collection release is From the Heartland (dir Matt Coddaire) - a Ceres staff favorite documentary about two brothers in rural Minnesota facing a crossroads after a devastating flood: adopt sustainable farming practices, or continue the traditions passed down through generations.

It’s a meditation on American agriculture, rural community, and the weight of history on the land we farm. Matt Coddaire’s work is stunning - slow, gorgeous filmmaking that lets you sink into a place and its people.

Watch it here

As always, if any of this sparks thoughts or questions, hit reply! We love hearing from you.

Warmly,

Maayan and the Ceres Team