Tapas Tales: 3 Short Films that Serve up Big Culinary Energy
Bite-sized movies + what to eat while you watch... (Featuring Beans, Dumplings, and Cheese-filled Hot Dogs)
Sometimes, committing to an entrée — or a full-length feature movie — is simply too much of an obligation.
While the endless scroll of social media apps — and ordering takeout from the same restaurant you eat at every week — sure is appealing (at least to me), every so often there comes an evening when you crave something a little more nutritious.
When you don’t know what you want to eat, tapas and small plates are the answer. By the same token, short films are the perfect bite-sized media to screen when your eyeballs are hankering for a little something substantial, but you’re not sure what. Here, I’ve rounded up three food-featuring short films that have been on my mind lately…
Bao (2018)
🥟 Runtime: 8 minutes
A short film by Pixar-Disney, Bao is a film about Chinese-Canadian dumplings that come to life, the struggle of immigrant empty-nesters, and people with disproportionately large heads.
While the popularity of short films is ostensibly rising due to the popularity of social media and video websites like YouTube, anecdotally, I find short films have a harder time finding an audience than features and television. This could be why Pixar and Disney decided to give Bao a theatrical run by playing it before every screening of the Incredibles 2 blockbuster.
Bao sticks out in my memory as having one of the most shocking, food-related twists of all time in a short film, and surely won’t disappoint.
Watch: Bao is available to stream on Disney+, free with subscription.
Pair With: Steamed Dumplings, of course! I’m tempted to try this recipe from Sur La Table.
CHEESE DOG: THE MOVIE (2015)
🌭 Runtime: 15 minutes
If you’ve never seen a Snaxtime short film, co-directed by Jamie Dwyer and Justin Ulloa, I can confidently say you’ve never seen anything like it before.
Armed with a unique animation style and unparalleled reverence for hot dogs injected with cheese, Cheese Dog is an award-winning short film that chronicles a day in the life of Wendy-Lou, a fast-food employee who dreams of snacks and success.
For full disclosure, I should note Justin Ulloa was my manager at an old job I held once upon a time. When he showed Cheese Dog to me and my co-workers in 2015, we were floored.
At the time, I thought the film had similar sensibilities to the PC Music-adjacent song-and-soft-drink art project “Hey Q.T. that came out around the same time, which involved music videos and concerts heavily promoting an otherwise non-existent canned beverage. Both projects explored ideas of capitalism, brand identity, futuristic fantasies, and mass-produced consumables.
Similar to the Q.T. project, Cheese Dog: The Movie is more uplifting than you might expect. (If you’re new here, movies that pleasantly surprise me by being clever yet not completely depressing are my personal favorites!)
Watch: Fast-food lovers can view Cheese Dog: The Movie online for free, here.
Pair With: Your favorite fast-food takeout! Suggestions include: Milkshakes from Sonic, vegan or non-vegan crunchwraps at Taco Bell, or banana walnut loaves at Starbucks (yes, it’s fast food, hate to break it to you!)
Dessert: Those with an appetite for more will delight in the entire Snaxtime USA brand, which offers multiple other short films along with apparel, blogs, streamable soundtracks, and an incredibly delightful Instagram presence.
Scenes with Beans (Hungary: Babfilm, 1976)
🫘 Runtime: 12 minutes
Beans, beans, beans!
Directed by Hungarian filmmaker Ottó Foky and written by József Nepp, Scenes with Beans or Babfilm follows a metallic extraterrestrial who stumbles upon a Whoville-esque planet filled with beans — yes, beans — and stops to watch their daily lives. From car accidents and protests to church and swimming, the beans of ‘beanland’ sure do get up to a lot.
Even more impressive, their world is made up of everyday objects from ours: Wine bottles become church steeples, fish tins become cars, and hair combs become fences.
Fun Fact: An impressive 2,800 beans were cast in the film, chosen out of piles and piles of beans of all kinds by the filmmaking team.
As a vegan and a loose follower of legume-enthusiastic nutritionist Karen Hurd’s bean protocol (rabbit hole alert), I LOVE beans. I am their biggest fan. Soluble fiber is the name of the game. Trust me when I say I’d give anything to stumble upon a microcosmic world of beans like the flying metal alien does in Scenes with Beans. Until that day comes, I will have to settle for watching this short film on repeat.
Watch: On YouTube, here, courtesy of LANTERNA MÁGICA.
Pair With: A bean-heavy dish. Lately, I’ve been loving this Black Bean Soup recipe, paired with this cornbread. (In fact, I am eating this exact meal as I write this.)
This won’t be the last installment of Tapas Tales! I watch a wide variety of food-featuring shorts (of varying quality) while researching this piece. Needless to say, I’ll be writing about more food-focused short films on Film Flavor in the coming months.
Next on Film Flavor:
After much deliberation, I’ve decided to start the official Film Flavor Oscar’s Poll (including prizes for newsletter subscribers, of course!) a little closer to the real-life award show. To be honest, there’s too much hullabaloo in the zeitgeist right now regarding the Oscar nominations that were announced last week, and I’d like to have the Film Flavor bets top of mind when the Oscar’s air in early March. Until then, feel free to leave a comment on this post or shoot me a note on the Film Flavor Instagram with your thoughts about this award season!
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And please, leave me a comment + let me know what you thought of Bao, Cheese Dog, and Babfilm!
With gratitude,
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