Beer and Cinema

This is a repost of something I wrote on theauteurs.com several months ago:

I see that the Cannes Film Festival and The Auteurs are partnering with Stella Artois to bring us some great films for free on this site. Kudos to everyone at The Auteurs for getting support from a major corporation to make this happen and I will be watching some of these films from the comfort of my home. I will not, however, be drinking a Stella while doing so.

I may be the only one here who feels this way, but I find it kind of odd that a site dedicated to choice and independence in film making has partnered with a corporation dedicated to stifling choice and independence in brewing. Stella Artois is owned by the largest beverage company in the world, Anheuser-Busch InBev. Anheuser-Busch did a lot to destroy the American Beer industry by overwhelming the market with its fizzy, tasteless light American lager and driving small, independent brewers out of business by the 1970s due to its overwhelming production capability, focus on marketing, and dominance of distribution networks. This makes Anheuser-Busch InBev a lot like a major Hollywood studio, which focuses mainly on earnings with little regard for the quality of their product, as long as it panders to the lowest common denominator.

Today, Anheuser-Busch InBev controls almost 50% of the US beer market by itself, with Miller/Coors taking up most of the remainder. These two corporations, in their pursuit of market dominance, have focused on cutting production costs by brewing beer (and this includes Stella Artois) with cheap adjuncts (corn and rice instead of malted barley; synthetic TetraHop liquid instead of real hops), while saturating us with multi-million dollar advertising campaigns. Some of these ads are actually quite clever, such as this one, which aired in Canada, for the atrocious concoction Bud Light Lime:



The worst thing about this is that it actually works. The average American beer drinker is incredibly loyal to their brand, although it is nearly impossible to tell the difference between the major American light lagers.

Anheuser-Busch, Miller, and Coors did a lot to give American beer a terrible reputation worldwide. In the past 20 years, however, small independent craft brewers have made the United States one of the best places to find bold, interesting, and delicious beers. They have also helped expose Americans to some of the great beers from other parts of the world, such as Belgian Trappist and farmhouse ales that influenced their own recipes. For the most part, craft breweries do a lot to support their communities by buying their ingredients locally and getting their employees involved in local issues, or sponsoring events, such as film festivals. They also collaborate with one another to make their products even better. Check out this video (featuring Stone Brewing’s Greg Koch) for an example of what I mean:



Through a lot of hard work, sacrifice, and passion for their work, independent brewers have carved out a tiny slice of market share, but still face a lot of challenges, mainly the three-tiered distribution system that disproportionately favors the mega-breweries, as well as overt harassment from the big guys. These are the same problems facing independent film makers. A lot of the films being shown at Cannes and other festivals will never be seen by a wide audience because distributors are unwilling to take a chance on them. This severely limits consumer choice and exposure to some very interesting films. In the end, it’s all about choice. I want to have access to the finest films in the world and I’d also like to ensure I can enjoy some good beer while doing so.

So, do yourself a favor and expand your horizons the next time you buy beer by trying a real craft beer instead of that fizzy yellow junk you see on TV. If you don’t like it, fine. But it’s nice to have a choice in the matter, don’t you think? And wouldn’t you feel better about supporting brewers like these guys rather than a massive, faceless corporation?



Incidentally, I’m trying to get my craft beer-loving friends interested in great independent and “foreign” films using the same argument . . . so far with mixed results.

Support your local brewery and long live independent film!

And check out Anat Baron’s Beer Wars if you’re interested in this topic. It’s available instantly on Netflix.