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You Are What You Eat

Name: You Are What You Eat
Director: Barry Feinstein
Released: 1968
Duration: 75 min

Representation Score

8.4/10

Excellent

1968

Director

Barry Feinstein

Runtime

75 minutes

Average Rating

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New Showbiz Analysis

You Are What You Eat serves as a visceral historical document of 1960s counterculture. It excels at capturing the aesthetic and social transgressions of the era, particularly through its focus on the 'flower people' and the rejection of mainstream morality. The film's strength lies in its cultural framing, using a montage style to highlight the diverse, non-traditional lifestyles found in San Francisco and New York. It effectively deconstructs traditional social hierarchies by centering on the 'freak-out' culture. However, the documentary's montage-heavy structure limits deep, character-driven representation. While it captures the atmosphere of diverse communities, it lacks the specific narrative arcs necessary to provide robust visibility for individual identities or disability ability to act.

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Category Breakdown

Does You Are What You Eat have LGBTQ+ representation?

Fair

The film captures the emerging queer subcultures of the late 1960s by focusing on the East Village and Haight-Ashbury scenes. It highlights non-traditional gender expressions and lifestyles by documenting the fringes of society.

How does You Are What You Eat portray gender?

Fair

The narrative explores changing gender norms by showcasing the gender-fluid aesthetics of the hippie movement. It provides moderate representation through cultural documentation rather than specific character-driven stories.

How racially and ethnically diverse is You Are What You Eat?

Good

By documenting the Sunset Strip and Haight-Ashbury, the film captures the diverse ethnic groups present in these cultural melting pots. It focuses on underrepresented identities existing outside the Anglo-Saxon mainstream.

How does You Are What You Eat represent religion and culture?

Excellent

The film prioritizes anti-establishment sentiments and critiques traditional Western social structures. It uses psychedelic experiences to challenge mainstream societal norms and traditional institutions like religion and family.

Does You Are What You Eat include disability representation?

Fair

The film's interest in the 'weird' and 'repellent' suggests an engagement with non-normative experiences. However, it lacks specific evidence of characters with clear roles or actions related to physical or cognitive disabilities.

Present on Screen

Provides a significant historical record of the 1960s countercultural movements and their diverse social landscapes.
Effectively challenges traditional Western social and moral structures through its focus on psychedelic and anti-establishment cultures.
Captures the gender-fluid aesthetics and non-traditional social roles prevalent in the hippie movement.

Limited or Absent

Lacks specific, character-driven narratives to provide deeper visibility for LGBTQ+ and racial identities.
Provides limited evidence of intentional representation or ability to act for individuals with physical or cognitive disabilities.
The montage format prioritizes atmosphere over the nuanced exploration of individual multi-layered identities.

Official Synopsis

A montage of the weird, a freak-out film that appeared when the expression was in fashion and in flower, along with the flower people. The film was one of the first exponents of the mobile camera-rock track-optical effect school of filmmaking, and it is much a document as it is a documentary. A repellent and fascinating depiction of the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, along with Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco and the East Village in New York. Tiny Tim amounts to something resembling a recurring motif and narrator.

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