Americans of all ages, shapes, and sizes confess
their passions for chocolate. We meet the obsessed at a number of festivals
on the chocolate circuit from San Francisco to New York, and even on a
chocolate lovers' bus tour. The Mecca for these pilgrims is Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Two and a half million come there every year to smell the air, tour through
a simulated factory, dance with giant chocolate bars in the chocolate theme
park, and consume the object of their desire in industrial quantities.
We go behind the scenes at Hershey to see how they fuel the choco-tourism
and how they make the "Great American Chocolate Bar" in the world's largest
factory.
Throughout the film, expert commentary along
with entertaining movie, TV, and industrial archive playfully explore the
evolution of America's chocolate mania. We investigate the science of chocolate
- its potential as an aphrodisiac, its addictive nature, and anti-depressant
qualities. Psychologists and physiologists research chocolate cravings,
chocolate's complex chemistry, its impact on the body and the mind, and
why women are 70 percent more likely to crave it than men. While women
crave it the most, because it's fattening, they also feel the most guilty.
We follow the author of "Why Women Crave Chocolate" as she takes her message
that chocolate is the "power food for premenstrual women" to hungry audiences
across the country.
Hopeful romantics buying bonbons on Valentine's
Day set the scene for our exploration of the relationship between chocolate
and love. For others, the illicit indulgence of chocolate is an almost
sexual thrill. Lovers share their erotic chocolate fantasies, while artists
employ chocolate's beguiling power. We meet a pop artist who uses giant
chocolate surprises to "seduce people", and a top pastry chef who is also
a chocolate body builder.
CHOC-O-RAMA is a journey into the American mind
- a highly visual, revealing, and humerous film on a relationship with
pleasure, sin, guilt, sex, and instant gratification that is uniquely American.
It is a film that anyone who has ever eaten a chocolate bar will want to
see. They will be enthralled, shocked, amused, provoked, and will never
go hungry.
Daniel Elias & David Houts, Directors & Producers
Carol Ciancutti-Leyva, Associate Producer
Dena Mermelstein & Douglas O'Connor, Editors
David Houts & Daniel Elias, Audio
Emmanuel Fuentabella, Daniel Meyers, John Foster, Edgar Gil, Jaime Kibben, Scott Pauley, Daniel Elias, Andrew Dunn, Camera
The film is choc-full of characters and stories.
We follow the "chocolate lady", a marketing expert who works to create
and sell the candies we eat everyday. The publisher of "Chocolate Magazine"
believes that chocolate "is the sexiest food that Americans deal with",
and spends his days hurrying to shoot chocolates as centerfolds before
they melt. While no other food stimulates such devotion, for many Americans
eating this "forbidden fruit" is layered with sinful guilt and illicit
taboo. We join a chocoholics therapy group who are struggling to enjoy
chocolate in guilt-free moderation.
