To Dye For: The Documentary

As a parent of a child who was hard to figure out, a child who was constantly inconsistent. This film hit the nail on the head! So many people thought we were crazy until they saw the change. It's unbelievable what they allow us to ingest! I love how simply put everything in the film was. It's all so easy to understand and just very informative. My seven year old wanted to watch it and was excited to know that he's not alone in how synthetic dyes make him feel. I would suggest watching it first before letting your child see it, just so you are aware of the topics to discuss. I have watched it several times now and it's so comforting to know my family isn't alone.

Thankful cannot express how I feel that many people decided to create this film! I hope this film gets approved for Netflix, Hulu, and everywhere else because its message is vital! It is life or death that parents learn about how toxic these dyes are! I have first hand experience of watching my children lose their minds after Easter or Halloween candy, I wish I would have learned WHY sooner! It was the dye! I cannot tell you how many parent called me crazy when I eventually would deny my children foods or candies with dye, I wish they knew everything in this film! Cannot recommend this film enough!

Both from personal experience and from the scientific research to back it up, there's just too much evidence to ignore. Synthetic dyes are harming us, and especially our children on so many levels. Here's the other point-even if they weren't harming us (though the evidence says differently), they certainly aren't helping us. So why are these poisons and carcinogens being put into our food? It's all a money grab, and unless we speak up and speak louder than the food industry, we will never make a change. This documentary validates the experiences of thousands of family across the nation, and it is well put together, moves at a great pace, and is incredibly inspirational. It's time to follow the calls to action and make a change.

I work in video journalism and this film reminds me of a lot of projects by new filmmakers who feel passionately on a topic - emotional stories, interviews on one side of an argument, the making of the film itself used as a narrative device (it was your son that was interesting, not your being new to the craft), a lack of new or groundbreaking information / footage, and longer than necessary. Which is fine; most filmmakers - newcomers and veterans alike - will fall into these traps. It's so easy to do. What most people need to avoid these is an editor, which I couldn't feel in this project (and by "editor" I don't necessarily mean the person who holds the mouse and controls the editing software - I mean someone who will ruthlessly force the filmmakers to cut the fat, to get outside their comfort zones, to break new ground or to find new information, and ask the filmmakers to examine their own biases (counter arguments are actually *good* for the credibility of a project, but it can be hard for an advocate to realize this)).

The things I would've liked to have seen in this film: (1) discussion of the crackpot pseudoscience fringe who have attached themselves to this issue - has that hurt the cause? Give us a peek of the reality inside the movement. (2) An examination / explanation of how it can be that the FDA can ban something for external use but allow it for internal use. (3) Interviews with food industry folks: someone defending food dyes ("Americans want crazy-looking crap - what are we supposed to do??") and/or someone who worked in the food industry at the time these dyes were taking hold and can offer us a peek behind the curtain. It would be especially cool to hear from someone who developed these dyes and tried to make them safe for kids....but failed. And most of all, (4) someone at FDA - either *currently* as a whistleblower, or *formerly* as a "I can't believe I saw this go down"-type voice - who can provide either a smoking gun or provide info that shows how this is a profit-vs-people issue. I suppose the FDA interview could also be a humorous device when the person can't tell us why such toxic crap is allowed in our food. Oh and (5) less reliance on personal, tragic narratives. Some of this is absolutely needed, but such a huge issue that's been at-play for decades now should also have produced macro-sized data and big health trends that were missing from the film. Oh and (6), yeah, it doesn't look great that there are a bunch of 10-star reviews from first-time reviewers and the "rate this" score is around 6.

It also would've been really cool to see your wife confront a food executive; moms with kids who've been harmed have the moral high ground 100% of the time.

But kudos for getting a passion project into the form of a feature film. I hope it produces good things for your son. Much of the lighting and cinematography were really beautiful, and you found some very compelling personal stories.

As a european finance professional, my mind went to warren buffet watching this. Knowing some of his holdings in staple US pantry items, i can't understand the absolute disregard for the end customer. These chemicals are known to be harmful, and have been for decades, yet industrial lobbies are actively fighting to keep using them, knowing full well it's detrimental to the health of customers.

It's mind blowing to me, the level of carelessness and evil required as a company exec to go out of your way to fight to keep using cancer causing chemicals so your food can be brightly coloured. Insane.