A documentary entry in this year’s Sundance Festival, Finding North explores the ever-widening discrepancy between rich and poor in American, and those who struggle to find the funds to ensure themselves (and their families) are feed on a daily basis. The film draws parallels with the widespread obesity issue, where impoverished communities without fresh commodities (or who simply can’t afford them) are forced to eat the cheaper alternative of processed food.

Neither the tub-thumping call the arms of a Michael Moore film, nor reminiscent of those hard-hitting HBO-type explorations, Finding North is a gentler, yet still incredibly sobering polemic.

One of the narrative branches follows a young, unemployed single mother of two named Barbie, and her participation in the movement ‘Witnesses to Hunger’, which continually lobbies congress to make changes in the welfare system. In a horribly ironic twist, Barbie’s eventual joy at finding employment renders her ineligible for many of the benefits she relies on, bringing her situations back to square one.

As a nation which is presented to the rest of the world mainly via a rose-tinted, Hollywoodised version of the truth, it’s easy to forget to that this is a country whose poverty and hunger has reached almost epidemic proportions, and it’s documentaries like this, while lacking the same artistry found in recent socially-conscious favourites like ‘Enron’ and Waiting for Superman, still deserve to be seen by as many viewers as possible.

Finding North will leave you incredulous as to how such a supposed powerful nation could forsake many of its population, and will invoke anger over the sheer greed of the country’s corporate mentality, where the whole notion of the ‘American Dream’ has been soured and twisted for financial gain.

[Rating:3.5/5]