Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, June 23: FEAR NO FRUIT
Mark Brian Smith’s love letter to an unsung produce pioneer bowed at the San Luis Obispo fest earlier this year. It has also screened at Newport Beach, where it picked up an award. FilmBuff now releases the doc on VOD platforms including iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Google Play, XBOX, and Vudu.
Smith’s subject is Frieda Caplan, who inadvertently became a trailblazer with the produce industry by becoming the first woman to work in Los Angeles’ wholesale market in the early 1960s, previously the exclusive domain of men. Building up her business, Caplan further changed the face of American produce by introducing a wide array of exotic fruits and vegetables into the US market – most notably kiwi – and, notably, by bringing the idea of marketing into the field. Still an active part of her company, which was taken over by her daughters in the 1980s, the nonagenarian makes for a likeable subject for what is otherwise a very conventional and overextended biography, brightened up only too briefly with some nice archival footage.
what (not) to doc 