KING CORN, a feature documentary by three Yale College alums premiered at Cinema Village in New York City on October 12th and is now playing in select cities around the country. Visit www.kingcorn.net for a complete listing of locations and theater links.

KING CORN is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation.In the film, Ian Cheney ('02 and MEM '03) and Curt Ellis ('02) move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America’s most-productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat—and how we farm.

KING CORN co-Producers Ian Cheney ('02) and Curt Ellis ('02) became best friends at Yale. In college, Ian and Curt tried in various ways to reconnect students to their food, releasing sheep on the central campus, working to bring local foods into the dining halls, and taking incoming freshmen on orientation trips to organic farms. After graduation, Ian and Curt took a cross-country trip, and learned how little they really knew about the centerpiece of the American diet, corn. With Curt’s cousin Aaron on board as director, the team moved to Iowa and started farming and filming in 2004.

The film's editor Jeffrey K. Miller ('03) has directed and edited numerous short films, comedy sketches, and commercials, including recent spots for Converse and the US Government. He was an assistant director on the IFC film The Baxter and is a member of the New York comedy troupe Trophy Dad. Jeff attended Yale with Ian and Curt, and is currently enrolled in film school at Columbia.

The New York anti-folk band The WoWz is a collaboration between Simon Beins ('03), Sam Grossman ('04), and Johnny Dydo. Their releases include Brudders, Long Grain Rights and Cool Dump.