For a couple of years now I have guiltily turned a blind eye to the sugar debate – like most people with a sweet tooth. However, all that changed after watching Australian actor and director Damon Gameau‘s documentary That Sugar Film. Turns out, the occasional piece of chocolate is the least of my problems as Gameau’s documentary reveals it’s the foods perceived to be healthy we’ve got to watch out for. This highly entertaining film aimed as kids as much as adults, tackles the issue of sugar in a clear and concise way. Gameau doesn’t lecture his audience, instead he encourages us to make our own choices – as long as they’re educated – and there’s no better place than with The Sugar Film.
Damon kindly took some time out of his very busy schedule to have a chat to Rialto Channel about his debut film that’s taking the world by storm.
Rialto: Congratulations on the film, the books and the small empire you’re building. I’d mentioned to a few friends I was talking to you today, and they were like, oh yeah ‘That Sugar Guy’.
DG: I’m trying to undo that particular moniker at the moment. It’s not easy, but I am trying to move onto the next thing but it’s very hard.
Rialto: When you began this project did you think you’d become the face of one of the hottest topics around at the moment?
DG: No, part of me is very happy and proud we’ve been able to get the message to a whole lot of people, but the tricky part is getting that balance right. It’s got such momentum all around the world now, and as much as it’s fantastic, it’s also just trying to making sure I stay and be a father and try and do other things I am passionate about. It’s tough keeping the balls in the air on this one, and I’m learning a lot very quickly and thinking on my toes. I’m getting some help which is good, but it’s been a very interesting time.
Rialto: Where has the film been released?
DG: It’s now being released in more than 35 different countries and the book is in 15 different languages. It’s really been quite crazy. I’ve just got back from for 4 days in Japan actually, even though the film has been out for over a year it is still getting released in different countries and in different languages throughout Asia at the moment. So again it’s bizarre to be answering the same questions I have been for over a year, but in a different language. It’s wonderful too. You hope you make a film that can connect and reach that kind of audience, so it’s been both overwhelming and heartening to think you can tell a little story, and if you tell it right it can really make some fantastic changes and help people and families. That was always our intention, so I’m very proud in that sense.
Rialto: This is the first film you’ve directed, as a process how did you enjoy it?
DG: I loved it, and I’m very excited about making my next film because I feel like I’ve learnt so much. I probably put the blinkers on a little too much - for the first film I think it happens quite often. In Australia you’re very aware that I think 99% of first time directors don’t make another film, so I was very aware of having to get this one right. It brought out a more controlling, perfectionist part of me that I didn’t realise I had, but hopefully I’ve been able to heal any wounds with friends and rectify a few things. We had a baby at the same time, so it was a really fascination time trying to put it together.
But I just knew if we got it right, it would really help people, so there was always this sense of wanting to push people in terms of let’s do something different, let’s do what documentaries haven’t done before, let’s make it fun, or asking “What are kids thinking at this point in the film, are they enjoying it, is it too scientific?” We were just constantly checking in with our audience and seeing where they’re at. I don’t think it’s done enough in films. I think sometimes with documentaries you can just make it and get it out there to a very niche audience that watches documentaries, but we were always adamant that people that don’t normally see documentaries have to try and watch this – that was the whole point. There was I guess an almost commercialization or broadening of the subject, always to make it fun, engaging and entertaining so we could get the people out to see it who we wanted to see it.
Rialto: There are a whole lot of special effects in this film – how challenging was it getting your head around that aspect of the film as a director?
DG: That was really just one friend of mine [Seth Larney], an amazing guy, and it was just him and I. I’d be editing during the day with an editor and then at night we’d sit up for 6 – 7 hours going back and forth trying to design the liver and put the brain together. It was a fantastic creative process and I really loved that aspect of it, and as soon as you get a hint of seeing what it’s going to be and how it’s coming together, that’s very exciting. Again, we’re trying to get it to kids, and we loved the idea of surfing through the body or going inside my own brain, the minute we could see that starting to come alive I knew it was going to work. I guess the thing was we had a brand new baby and we were just trying to get some sleep… it was an interesting time. But I am incredibly grateful to Zoe, my wife who was so patient throughout that time and understanding of what I was trying to do, and I’m certainly now trying to repay the favour and give her lots of free time as much as I can.
Rialto: And Zoe Tuckwell- Smith has been a really big part of this journey too.
DG: I don’t think I would have made the film if it wasn’t for her. Not just in the culinary sense, but in what she brings to me and our relationship. To have her now involved in the next book and write so much of it and contribute to it in so many ways is really special because she has been part of this journey, but probably more in the background. It’s terrific she now gets to step forward and share her wisdom with people and her attitude to basically being kind to yourself. A lot of people would want to go extreme and and she just brings a lovely sense of calm and balance to it all, helping people to be softer with themselves and take it gently as opposed to wanting to swing to the other side very quickly.
Rialto: Do you think watching the two of you go through this process encourages other couples and families to make changes together?
DG: That’s probably being the best thing about this whole process is the amount of times we get stopped in the street by families or kids, or people write to us and say they’ve all sat down as a family and they’re all loved it and made the change together. That’s very special for us... I’ve had so many mothers write to me saying thank you so much, you got through to my teenager. I’ve been saying this stuff for years but they just needed to see you go through it and what happened to your body for them to really comprehend how too much sugar can damage them.
RIALTO: When did the penny drop that the best way of telling this story was through eating foods perceived as healthy?
DG: I was in a supermarket looking at labels and trying to get my head around the amount of sugar in things and I picked up a can of Campbell’s tomato soup and saw it had 7 teaspoons of sugar in it, and I remember comparing that to a can of coke and it’s pretty much the same. I thought, I don’t think many people would know there’s that much sugar in a can of soup. So I thought, I wonder if I can get to [40] teaspoon per day and not touch junk food. For the next hour I looked at the cereals and juices and yogurts and realised I could get to 22 teaspoons by breakfast which means it’s going to be simple to get to 40 without touching any junk food.
I think that’s been the big thing for people, they had no idea how much sugar is lurking in these things that are so brilliantly marketed to us as healthy foods. I certainly think that’s raised a lot of awareness and people are taking the time to empowering themselves and look at labels. We’re talking to some very big companies about changing the teaspoon labeling system like we did in the Aboriginal community that we’re helping. They’ve let us completely relabel their whole store and it’s making a huge difference. We’re taking that proposal to big supermarkets now and other companies and saying, you don’t have to take your sugar out, just make it easier for people so that they can then decide how much sugar they’re having. If we’re all suppose to eat about 6 teaspoons a day, then let’s have it clearly marked on the packets so you can get to that number easily.
Rialto: You were a heathy, clued up eater before starting on this experiment – what did you learn that surprised or shocked you the most?
DG: Before you start, if you spend any time on the internet there’s so much conjecture about industry manipulation and what goes on whether it’s to do with the climate or politics and there’s a part of your brain that thinks, this is all a bit conspiracy theory like, it’s all a bit of mumbo jumbo drama. Then when you make a film like this and you meet people who are showing you documents, showing you emails and telling you over and over again these same stories, I guess that was a really big moment for me to realise there is a huge amount of manipulation that goes. There are studies that are funded, there are dieticians that are paid, and there are journalists that buy articles that are disparaging. This stuff is very real, and just in the same way as the tobacco industry, the food industry is doing it was well. If you see Coca-Cola at the moment, they are outing and showing a list of people they’ve been giving money to around the world and they are about to it do Australia this week, and it’s real and it does happen.
That was a bit of a shock to me, to see how much we’re being misled and how much these companies create the doubt and ambiguity in the public space so they can keep earning money. As soon as there’s a bit of doubt then people keep buying because they won’t be sure and that’s exactly what tobacco did.
So to learn that was pretty confronting and to see how money they spend on getting us hooked on their products. Nestle has about 700 PhD scientists just working on how to make food addictive, understanding how we crave food, our brain chemistry and how our brains light up, and yet at the same time the industry is saying, it’s your fault, you’ve got to take personal responsibility. If you get fat and sick then you’re eating the wrong foods. And that’s just a bit unfair as the playing field is not entirely level because they’re spending millions of dollars to try to get us hooked.
Plus they’re infiltrating our subconscious in terms of advertising - we are bombarded by these messages and we know now from the science that these do activate parts of our brain. You see a giant crispy cream donut on the side of the bus as you pull up to the lights, it does something to your brain, and it might not be in that moment, but it plants the seed for later on.
So, it’s not entirely fair in terms of what they’re saying, and when people are a bit more aware of that and savvy of it, they can start to override it and start taking the power back.
Rialto: I’ve watched this film a couple of times, and I was quite taken back second time around at how much I’d forgotten – it’s hard to change one’s mind set isn’t it?
DG: Yes, and the environment doesn’t support it yet. You can watch the film and go “great, I’m going to change” and then two weeks later you’re just bombarded with everything else and things just start to slip away a little bit and it does take a concerted effort. And that’s unfortunate, but the same thing happened with tobacco 35 years ago but we got to a point where we’re a little bit smarter with our advertising and a bit more discrete. I think potentially we might get there with discretionary food moving forward. I don’t think there will be warnings on cans of coke but I think we’ll be a bit smarter with our advertising to kids with sports drinks and how much we’re allowed to place these kinds of images around, and knowing they triggering certain things in certain people.
You’re right it’s really tricky and we a just encourage people to be as good as you can at home… as long as you are predominantly those eating clean foods, and having the occasional processed food. But unfortunately the culture we’ve got has it completely around the wrong way at the moment and people are having too much of the processed stuff and very little of the real food.
Make sure you catch That Sugar Film, Thursday 31st March. 8.30pm