What: "Coldwater Kitchen," a documentary
When: 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 22
Where: City Opera House, Traverse City
Details and tickets
The documentary "Coldwater Kitchen" takes us inside Lakeland Correctional Facility in southern mid-Michigan, where inmates are learning to become gourmet chefs.
Co-director Mark Kurlyandchik says the James Beard Award-winning film asks some fundamental questions.
"If somebody commits a crime or wrongs somebody else and all you do is punish them, what happens at the end of that prison sentence?" Kurlyandchik told IPR.
"What happens when these folks then go back out into society? How do we expect them to be better or to be contributing members of society?" he said. "What this program does is offer skills to folks, so when they do get back out they have a different path they can follow and not fall back into ... what they knew from their life before."
Several of the film's subjects have gone on to careers in the restaurant industry. The documentary will be shown Saturday night as part of TC Food & Wine.
Producer: Austin Rowlader
Editor: Steve Junker
Host: Ed Ronco
Music: Blue Dot Sessions