TOKYO, Jan. 7 – David Gross, an Austrian filmmaker and activist, will start shooting a film “Mottainai Kitchen” in Japan this year as part of his longtime efforts in raising awareness for food waste.
In the movie, Gross himself will travel around Japan in a kitchen car which runs on waste oil and prepare creative meals from foods discarded at farms and households.
He plans to release the film in 2019, a year before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, to draw global attention to the concept of mottainai, a Japanese term meaning having respect for resources and not wasting them.
Gross has been suggesting ways to tackle the problem of food waste and create a sustainable society in a TV show and a documentary film “Wastecooking” by traveling in a kitchen car through five European nations including Germany, France and Austria. He visited households, food factories, farms, fishermen and supermarkets, collected edibles which were intended to be thrown away and presented how they can be made into meals.
He was introduced to the idea of mottainai when he visited Japan in January 2017 to promote his film. He was impressed with the concept which matched his past activities. At the same time, he learned that the nation generates food loss totaling 6.21 million tons a year – equivalent to roughly twice the amount of global food aid – and decided to shoot his new film in Japan.
He visited the country again in October 2017 to travel to various locations nationwide and finished most of the arrangements necessary to shoot the film.