Zachary Maxwell was only in fourth grade when, fearless, he denounced what was really going on in his school. Indeed, he is the director of the documentary entitled “Yuck: A 4th Grader's Short Documentary About School Lunch”, in which he filmed, sneaking into the canteen with a camera, the real content of his daily lunch.
Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerous
Zachary Maxwell he was only in fourth grade when, fearless, he denounced what was really going on in his school. In fact, he is the director of the documentary entitled “Yuck: A 4th Grader’s Short Documentary About School Lunch”, in which he filmed, sneaking into the canteen with a camera, the real contents of his daily lunch.
After the 9-year-old Scottish girl from the NeverSeconds blog, with the photo-denunciation of the meager menus of his school canteen, even the young filmmaker from overseas unmasks those who want to believe that the little students are served good and healthy dishes. And if you think getting this testimony was easy, you are wrong! Little Zac told it himself to the New York Times.
His documentary, in fact, took a big risk when the fearsome surveillance camera in the mess hall "caught" him filming without permission. “He sent me to call the teacher and told me to cancel everything,” says the child, who is now 11 years old. He pretended, then, to delete everything, but he already had enough material to publish: six months of secret videos, which form the framework of his 20-minute film.
This is how he was able to prove to his parents that the promised school food from the online menu was not what was served. And that instead of those delicious dishes, filled with whole grains and fresh vegetables, some even devised by famous chefs, there was often grilled cheese. Other examples are not lacking, from lasagna with tomato sauce, basil, baked spinach and aromatic herbs transformed into a cheese sandwich to tomato salads that become a slice of pizza accompanied by a tuft of lettuce.
Among the 75 lunches that Zachary recorded - chosen at random, he swears - the menu almost always differed "substantially" with the advertised one. And as many as 28 percent of the lunches filmed consisted of pizza or cheese sticks. But everything came to light thanks to the heroic courage and the marked sensitivity on the importance of proper nutrition for the health of a fourth grade child, whose film was awarded with all kinds of awards and will be screened at the Manhattan Film Festival.
Roberta Ragni
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