Dedicated to the stories told on plates, in kitchens and restaurants all over the world, director Gab Taraboulsy’s film, Funke, premieres this week at the LA Film Festival. The doc is the story of chef Evan Funke’s comeback onto the ultracompetitive LA food scene, while he simultaneously tries to save the art of handmade pasta from extinction.
“A large part of my evolution as a filmmaker was realizing that I had an innate curiosity to explore food: where it comes from; who's making it and why; how far off the plate can the story of an ingredient ripple?” Says Taraboulsy, “Doing a cinematic deep dive into my ancestral love for pasta was the stuff of fantasy.”
Realizing that fantasy has been a more than two-year journey for Gab and producing partner, Alex Emanuele, paralleling the ups and downs of Funke’s comeback. “As documentaries go, what's bad for them is good for us: the very human drama of success and failure while navigating the notoriously difficult LA restaurant scene, with its perpetually looming financial ruin, all this was part of the film's narrative drive.”
A Montreal native transplanted to LA, Gab’s parallel love of film and food has garnered a James Beard Award and a Webby for Best Documentary Series. With both the film and Funke’s comeback complete “we now have the inside, ultra-personal story behind the creation of one of the most highly regarded restaurants in the country.”
Funke exclusive clip: https://reel.io/__XC922
