About the Film

Susan Feniger FORKED is a verite documentary film following award-winning celebrity chef Susan Feniger on her first solo restaurant, her passionate struggle and quest to bring global street food under one roof in the form of a new LA restaurant: STREET.
Shot by her longtime filmmaker partner, it’s a story about starting over and about not IF one fails... but HOW.

Trailer

Chef Susan Feniger

SUSAN FENIGER is an American chef, restaurateur, cookbook author, radio and TV personality. She is known for starring in the cooking show Too Hot Tamales and Tamales World Tour on the FOOD Network, Iron Chef, Top Chef Masters, Cooking with the Master Chefs, and more. For 40 years she has traveled the world bringing food from different cultures back to her several influential Los Angeles restaurants, Ciudad, Street, Border Grill and Socalo, introducing Angelenos to authentic global dishes.
She has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the California Restaurant Association and also the L.A. Times Jonathan Gold Award celebrating intelligence, innovation, culture, and environment. Most recently she was awarded the Julia Child Award honoring an individual who has made a profound and significant difference in the way America cooks, eats, and drinks, and was inducted into the permanent collection of the Food Exhibition at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C.

A Note from Filmmaker Liz Lachman

When my beloved spouse of 28 years decided to return to her roots by opening a solo restaurant without her longtime chef partner, the enormity of the project, having to do everything out of our home… boggled the mind. I thought: “She’s a celebrity at the top of her field, practically starting over. Someone should record this.”
I didn’t mean ME.
What I discovered when I started filming was this: when I was behind the camera, Susan did all sorts of hilarious things to make me laugh that she would never do on TV. I was getting the uncut, raw, unadulterated Susan. The one I knew at home. I mean, she even let me film her dancing with the dog in her pajamas. And I’m pretty sure nobody else has that footage.
I didn’t intend to be part of this film but sometimes it was late at night in the kitchen with Susan cooking and talking to me behind the camera, unlocking memories about cooking with her mother as a young child, then asking me to taste something… so there
you are. Some of this is my private version of the chef Susan Feniger that I know and love and have made a life with.
I didn’t know how it would all end and I definitely sometimes wished I could set my hair on fire.
But then we wouldn’t have this film.

WORLD PREMIERE!

We are thrilled to announce our Film Festival World Premiere with REELING: Chicago LGTBQ 41st Film Festival on September 24th at 4.30pm at the Landmark’s Century Center Cinema, Chicago.

CLICK HERE for tickets and information.

NEWS

THANK YOU to REELING and the Chicago audiences for this amazing award!!

KANSAS PREMIERE!

We are so excited to have been selected for the TALLGRASS film festival in Wichita, Kansas. This is a fantastic film festival which hugely supports independent film and filmmakers. We screen on October 7th at 10am. Our producer will be at the festival which runs in-person October 5th -8th

CLICK HERE for tickets and information.

WEST COAST PREMIERE!

We are thrilled to announce our West Coast Premiere with Newport Beach Film Festival! Our screening is on Tuesday 17th October at 8pm at The New Port Theatre. Tickets go on sale from September 12th.

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LOS ANGELES PREMIERE!

We are delighted to announce our Los Angeles Premiere with LA Femme International Film Festival, Oct 19-22.

SCREENING DATE : Saturday October 21st at 2pm

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TEXAS PREMIERE!

Thrilled to be part of the prestigious Austin Film Festival with TWO SCREENINGS!

SCREENING DATES:

October 27th at 3:30pm

and

November 1st at 1:30pm

OJAI PREMIERE!

We can’t wait to screen at Ojai Film Festival on November 5.

SCREENING TIME IS TBD

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SAN DIEGO PREMIERE!

We are thrilled to Premiere with Coronado Island Film Festival! November 10, 3pm.

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PALM SPRINGS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Palm Springs here we come! Three screenings:

January 8th @ 4:45pm

January 13th @ 3:30pm

January 14th @ 10:00am

CLICK HERE for tickets and information.

SUPPORT FORKED

Your donation is tax-deductible!

We are thrilled to announce Susan Feniger. FORKED is a fiscally sponsored project of Film Independent, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit independent media arts organization.

Film Independent will receive grants for the charitable purposes of Susan Feniger.FORKED, provide oversight to ensure that grant funds are used in accordance with grant agreements and provide reports as required by the grantor.

Contributions for the charitable purposes of Susan Feniger.FORKED must be made payable to Film Independent and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

If you would like to help get this film over the finish line by becoming an investor, please contact our producer, Lisa Donmall-Reeve, by using the contact form.

Support

Offers you 100% tax deduction on your donation

THANK YOU for your interest in donating to the upcoming feature film “Susan Feniger. FORKED”

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Please be sure to include the project name: Susan Feniger. FORKED on all electronic transfers.

2. CREDIT CARD (up to 10K only) THROUGH PAYMENT PORTAL

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3. CHECK

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THE TEAM

LIZ LACHMAN

See Liz's Work

Director

LIZ LACHMAN is an EMMY AWARD winning musician and composer, a GOLDEN REEL AWARD winning music editor, and a BMI TV MUSIC AWARD winner. As a filmmaker her latest short psychological drama, PIN-UP, starring Angela Sarafyan (WESTWORLD) and Christina Chang (THE GOOD DOCTOR) has won 30 film festival awards world-wide and Liz is now in development on the feature version. Her first short film, Getting To Know You, starring Dana Delaney and Ian Gomez, won 9 festival awards.

As a writer, Liz has twice been a Quarter Finalist and placed in the Top 15% in the ACADEMY NICHOLL Screenplay Competition, placed as a Semi Finalist and a Quarter Finalist in the PAGE Screenplay awards, a Semi Finalist in the FINAL DRAFT Big Break Screenplay Competition and in the STOWE Story Labs. Her feature screenplay, Rowing In Eden, is currently being produced by Lora Kennedy and Cindy Tolan with Saffron Burrows directing.

Liz’s book of blogs from her food trips with Susan, titled “NO ESCAPE: My horrible food travels with Susan Feniger…a love story” is now being published by Cool Titles Publishing. HINT: Liz hates being dragged around the world, tasting unfamiliar foods in 110 degrees. Susan loves it. Thus the blogging.

Liz’s favorite things are classic Alfa Romeos and comic books. So yes, she’s actually a 12-year-old boy.

LISA DONMALL-REEVE

Producer
LISA DONMALL-REEVE migrated to film from a successful and extensive career in theatre, where she spent over twenty years as a performer playing many leading roles in London’s West End and internationally. As a creative, she has assisted some of the world’s finest choreographers on numerous projects and helped shape the next generation of dancers as an educator in both the U.S. and U.K.
Lisa launched LDR Creative LLC in 2016 with the objective to build creative teams that inspire, and to produce product that makes a difference. Her first short film, Early Mourning, was screened at over 20 film festivals, winning 5 awards including the Audience Award at the Soho International Film Festival 2017 in NYC. The follow-up short, Free, is distributed on both Shorts TV and Amazon Prime, and several more shorts are currently screening on film festival circuits. Lisa’s first feature length documentary, 'Uprooted - The Journey of Jazz Dance' enjoyed a world premiere at the Lincoln Centres Dance on Camera Film Festival in NYC, winning the Best of Fest Feature Award in 2020 and is continuing to take the festival circuit by storm winning sixteen further awards including Best Musical Documentary at The Rhode Island International Film Festival and was nominated for Best Documentary during its International Premiere at Raindance Film Festival.

See Lisa's Work
JOAN GILL AMORIM

Editor
Joan is an editor with a passion for empowering through storytelling. Originally from southeastern Virginia, she’s lived in Rome and Hong Kong before making London her home.
Joan started her feature career as the first assistant editor on Kevin Macdonald’s Whitney, which made its debut at Cannes. She then dove head-first into Uprooted - The Journey of Jazz Dance, a feature-length documentary looking at the roots, evolution and future of Jazz Dance which has been enjoying a hugely successful festival run - winning over sixteen awards including Best Documentary at the 2021 Pan African Film Festival, Best Musical Documentary at The Rhode Island International Film Festival, and Best Editing at the 2021 SCAD Savannah Film Festival.
Her past editorial work includes the award-winning Whirlpool, a look at the often undertold life of Helen Keller as an adult; Hymn of Hate, which takes us to the battlefields of World War I but delivers a still-timely message; and Mother Nature, a short documentary on navigating motherhood that became one of the highest-viewed films in Nowness’ history.
Joan truly loves the editing process, particularly finding the story and bringing it to life, which comes across in her empathetic, rhythmic and textural style. Joan works predominantly in documentary and long form, but she also enjoys making and editing fictional films, content and commercials, as well as writing.

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Miriam Cutler

Composer
Three time Emmy nominated composer, Miriam Cutler, is passionate about documentaries. Her work includes HBO, CNN, PBS, Sundance, Emmy, and Oscar nominated films: RBG, Love Gilda, Til Kingdom Come, Dilemma of Desire, Flannery, Dark Money, The Hunting Ground, Ethel, Lost in La Mancha, Thin, Poster Girl, Vito, KingsPoint, Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, A Plastic Ocean, Licensed To Kill, and many more. Co-Produced and Scored Dark Money, One Lucky Elephant.
Advisor/ Sundance Documentary Composers Lab, doc juror for Sundance FF, Spirit Awards, AFI, and more. AMPAS Documentary Exec Committee Branch member, Film Expert/USC Cinema/US State Department’s American Film Showcase.
Past TV Academy Music Branch Exec committee member, Long-time former SCL Board Member and Co-Founder Alliance for Women Film Composers, Co-produced live jazz albums including Joe Williams, Nina Simone, Shirley Horn, Marlena Shaw.

See Miriam's Work