Beer Wars - Brewed in America

I actually just heard about this film from another blog that I follow, Craft Austin. Beer Wars is an independent film that "takes you on a no holds barred exploration of the U.S. beer industry that ultimately reveals the truth behind the label of your favorite beer." Initially, it reminded me of another recent independent beer movie, American Beer. However, American Beer was made by five friends filming their experiences while travelling in a mini-van to 38 breweries in 40 days. Beer Wars (from what I was able to learn from the website and trailer) appears to be more of a behind the scenes documentary about the business of craft beer and the industry's ongoing battle for market share with the macro breweries. A battle that the craft beer industry is continuing to be successful at as indicated by the recent statistics released by the Brewers Association. What makes this documentary even more interesting is the filmmaker herself... she allergic to alcohol! That's right, the filmmaker is unable to consume the product that her documentary is about. So, I'm guessing we won't be seeing scenes of drunken debauchery as in American Beer.

A special "live" screening featuring Ben Stein will be taking place at select theatres around the country on April 16th. Oddly enough, it doesn't currently appear to be scheduled at the Alamo Drafthouse, which seems like the nature place to screen this type of film. I've contacted the Alamo to see if they're planning on having it or not. It definitely looks interesting and I'm certainly going to plan on catching it at one of the local theatres.