Know Your Mushrooms

Know Your Mushrooms
Directed byRon Mann
Written byRon Mann
Screenplay byRon Mann
Produced byRon Mann
StarringLarry Evans
Gary Lincoff
CinematographyAndy Keen
Brian T. Moore
Edited bySimon Ennis
Nick Taylor
Music byThe Flaming Lips
Production
company
Sphinx Productions
Distributed byFilms We Like
Release date
  • 5 December 2008 (2008-12-05)
Running time
74 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

Know Your Mushrooms is a 2008 documentary film by Canadian director Ron Mann.[1][2]

The 74 minute Sphinx Productions[3] film examines the counterculture Telluride Mushroom Festival,[4] held annually in Telluride, Colorado and some of the mycologists and funghiphiles that gather there such as Larry Evans[5][6] and Gary Lincoff,[7] author of seven mushroom identification guidebooks,[8] including the Audubon Field Guide to Mushrooms.[9]

The soundtrack includes music by the Flaming Lips and The Sadies.[2]

Know Your Mushrooms is more about hard science and gourmet cuisine than space-outs and the munchies.[10]

Synopsis

Director Ron Mann and his partners at the first Telluride Mushroom Festival in Colorado, collect and consume mushrooms of every variety, particularly the aesthetically unappealing.[11] Mushroom fans and fungi experts explore and investigate during the four-day festival. Gary Lincoff and mycologist Larry Evans lead a wild mushroom hunt.[12]

  • Day One: Displays of local mushrooms and cooking demonstrations.
  • Day Two: Discussion and lecture.
  • Day Three: Health effects of fungi and cultural roles.[13] Discussion include mushroom's potential, for example, possible anti-cancer properties or mythological significance in shamanistic cultures.[14]
  • Day Four: A parade. Quizzes and short animations present controversial fungi, such as magic mushroom and fly agaric, the documentary provides an in-depth introduction to fungi.

Cast

  • Larry Evans as Larry Evans
  • Gary Lincoff as Gary Lincoff
  • Andrew Weil as Andrew Weil
  • John Cage as John Cage
  • Terence McKenna as Terence McKenna
  • John Allegro as John Allegro

References

  1. ^ "Know Your Mushrooms: Fungus film on the button" Toronto: The Star
  2. ^ a b Jason Anderson Know Your Mushrooms. Directed by Ron Mann. (G) 73 min. Opens Jan 30 at the Royal (608 College). Archived 2011-05-22 at the Wayback Machine Eye Weekly
  3. ^ IMDB
  4. ^ Photo report from the 2008 Telluride Mushroom Festival
  5. ^ Larry Evans Larry's fungal jungal
  6. ^ Chris Knight "Know Your Mushrooms: You don’t win friends with salad, but you do with fungi" National Post
  7. ^ Jim Slotek 'Mushroom' full of cool people, facts[usurped] 30 January 2009 The Sun
  8. ^ Toronto filmmaker seeks to elevate lowly mushroom CBC 30 January 2009
  9. ^ Peter Howell "Spores score with Ron Mann" The Star 30 January 2009
  10. ^ Vaughan, M (30 Jan 2009). "Yes, yes, psychedelics do come into play". The Globe and Mail.
  11. ^ Howell, Peter (30 Jan 2009). "Fungus film on the button". Toronto Star.
  12. ^ "Know Your Mushrooms". Docurama.
  13. ^ "Know your Mushrooms(2008)". IMDb.
  14. ^ Mok, Kimberley (30 March 2009). "End Fungi-Phobia Now". TreeHugger.