Doors 7:30p
Program 8:00p
Tickets $18
(+$2 Processing Fee)
Apr 14, 2026 at 7:30 pm
Ceres Food Film Festival
With a special drink tasting by Acid!
UnionDocs
352 Onderdonk Ave
Ridgewood, NY
UnionDocs is delighted to collaborate with Ceres Food Film Festivaland Push Projects for a special evening of films and conversation exploring the stories, systems, and sensibilities that shape how and why we eat.
Ceres brings together films that reveal the layered realities of the global food system, where food is not only a source of joy, but also a site of politics, climate urgency, culture, and memory. Through storytelling, the festival invites us to look more closely at the unseen forces behind everyday consumption, and to consider our place within a deeply interconnected cycle.
The program features a selection of short films spanning intimate community portraits and global perspectives. Barriga Llena, Corazón Contento (Full Belly, Happy Heart) made by Jordana Rubenstein-Edberg and Marshall Hanig during UNDO’s 2025 CoLAB traces a Ridgewood food pantry through stories of migration, care, and shared meals. Lonely Whale: Seaweed Stories by Jake Sumner looks at seaweed’s potential through voices from Indigenous communities, science, and industry. Astrid Malter’s Ice Cream Window captures a neighborhood ritual that grew from a pandemic pop-up into a lasting community tradition. In Guguta, Anita Volker connects dessert-making with memory and post-Soviet identity. Alison Bartlett’s Zen Brownie explores Greyston Bakery’s Open Hiring model rooted in inclusivity.
The evening will conclude with a panel featuring Barriga Llena, Corazón
The evening will also include a special drink tasting by Acid, whose botanical spirits are made through vacuum distillation, preserving the natural aromatics of ingredients at low temperatures. By upcycling citrus peels and surplus botanicals, they create bright, expressive spirits that highlight both sustainability and experimentation.
Don’t miss this evening of films, shared flavors, and conversation that invites reflection on the food systems that nourish us!
Program
Barriga Llena, Corazón Contento (Full Belly, Happy Heart) by Jordan Rubenstein-Edberg & Marshall Hanig
A chorus of stories from the organizers of a grassroots food pantry in Ridgewood, Queens—interweaving migration journeys, home-made meals, and the everyday acts of care that bind a community together.
Seaweed Stories by Jake Sumner
Seaweed Stories is a vibrant, global look at the wonders of seaweed, and some of the extraordinary stories and characters whose lives have been entangled by this often overlooked marine plant which may hold answers to some of humanity’s biggest challenges. Seaweed Stories includes insights from a Silicon Valley startup creating plastic alternatives from macroalgae, to the Indigenous Shinnecock Kelp Farmers using seaweed to prove their sovereign right to coastal land, and a scientist in South Korea supporting seaweeds’ sexual reproduction to create new species that can withstand the effects of a changing climate.
Ice Cream Window by Astrid Malter
In August 2020, in the midst of Covid, we started offering scoops of ice cream from our studio’s service window—a 3-week pop-up to share the joy of ice cream with our neighbors. We were back the following year. In 2022, 2023, and 2024 we were back again for long and hot summers, every Saturday and Sunday. Now it’s 2025, our fifth year already, still here to share the joy of ice cream. BedStuy’s beloved LadyMooMoo still helps us greatly and we’re proud to continue to serve their delicious gourmet ice cream and sorbets, and of course we continue to work together on our own highly popular exclusive ice cream flavors.
Guguta by Anita Volker
In the heart of Moldavia, a dessert tells the story. In her kitchen, Maria prepares Guguță, a cherry cake inspired by a mythical figure from Soviet culture. As the pancakes pile up, archive images resurface: those of Guguță wearing an oversized hat, symbolizing a shared past. Between culinary tradition and collective memory, the film weaves a link between generations, revealing a country at the crossroads of memory and transmission.
Zen Brownie by Alison Bartlett
Zen Brownie tells the tale of Buddhist Monks and how leading with inclusivity, kindness, and compassion has created a well-known business in Greyston Bakery. Filmmaker Alison Bartlett in partnership with Michael Pirson (Stoner Chair for Global Sustainability – Gabelli School of Business, Fordham University) delve into the Humanistic Model Management and the philosophy behind and applying it to real world business through Open Hiring.
Program Duration: 65 mins
Watch the conversation between Presenter1, Presenter2 and Presenter 3 on the UnionDocs’ Membership hub.
Bios
Marshall Hanig (he/him) is a socially engaged mediamaker based in Ridgewood, Queens. He is interested in producing stories where the larger structures shaping our world intersect with the emotional experiences of individual beings and communities.
Jordana Rubenstein-Edberg (she/her) is a documentary filmmaker and community-engaged artist; she collaborates with activists and policymakers to share narratives that challenge dominant histories and imagine liberatory futures. Jordana holds a degree in Human Rights Journalism from Bard College and an MFA in Social Practice from the Corcoran School of Art. Through her documentary production company,
Jake Sumner is the award-winning director of acclaimed documentaries Fantastic Man: Who is William Onyeabor? (VICE, 2014) Channel 4’s I Was There When House Took Over The World (2017), and DOC NYC Jury prize winning short Bob of the Park (2019). Other films include The Plastic Age (2015) with Pharrell Williams and multiple film collaborations with contemporary artist KAWS. As a commercial director, Jake has created work with brands such as Nike, Tiffany’s, Moncler, Google, Mastercard and Pepsi.
Anita Volker is a documentary filmmaker. A former operating room nurse, she notably took part in the world’s first face transplant. She now develops documentary projects focused on disability, in collaboration with foundations and associations.
Astrid Malter is a documentarian. She graduated from Carleton College with a degree in Cinema & Media Studies. Her nonfiction work is interview based and revolves around urban and environmental change.
Her films have screened across the country at the Coney Island Film Festival, New York Climate Film Festival, Better Cities Film Festival, Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival, Downstream Environmental Film Fest, McMinnville Shorts Festival, Sidewalk Film Festival, Better Cities Film Festival and more. In 2024, her film Fl*shing Injustice won the Social Impact Award at the World Water Film Festival.
She lives and works in her native Brooklyn. When she’s not working, she enjoys listening to The Brian Lehrer Show, snacking, and knitting tiny animals … sometimes all at once.
Alison Bartlett is an Award Winning Writer, Emmy Nominated Actress, and Director. She made her Off Broadway acting debut at the age of 12 in “Landscape of The Body” directed by Gary Sinise. Her Broadway debut was in David Rabe’s “Hurly-burly” directed by Mike Nichols. From 1986-2015 she starred as the role of Gina on the world wide acclaimed television show “Sesame Street”. Known for her recurring roles on HBO’s “The Sopranos”, & FX’s “Rescue Me”, she has guest starred on numerous TV shows and received an Emmy Nomination for “Outstanding Performer in a Children’s Special” for her lead performance in ABC’s Afterschool Special “It’s Only Rock & Roll”. As a screenplay writer Alison has won a Silver Remi at the Worldfest-Houston International Film Festival; was a Semi-Finalist at Big Apple Film Festival and Screenplay Competition, and was an Official Selection of the Atlanta International Screenplay Awards. Alison is a lifelong New Yorker.
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