''Dive!'' is an American

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

directed by Jeremy Seifert.

Premise

The film follows director Jeremy Seifert and his friends as they dumpster dive behind several grocery stores in the

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

area to demonstrate the massive amount of food that is wasted each year in America. After showing that much of the food found in dumpsters is perfectly edible, Seifert confronts the managers of the stores to question why they don't donate more of it to local

food bank A food bank is a non-profit, charitable organization that distributes food to those who have difficulty purchasing enough to avoid hunger, usually through intermediaries like food pantries and soup kitchens. Some food banks distribute food direct ...

s, especially in light of the 1996 Federal Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, which protects them from liability for such donations. The legality and ethics of

dumpster diving Dumpster diving (also totting, skipping, skip diving or skip salvage) is salvaging from large commercial, residential, industrial and construction containers for unused items discarded by their owners but deemed useful to the picker. It is n ...

are discussed when the stores begin locking up their dumpsters. Finally, Seifert considers the

waste Waste (or wastes) are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use. A by-product, by contrast is a joint product of relatively minor economic value. A waste prod ...

created by individual consumers when they throw out food that is only partly bad or just past its

expiration date An expiration date or expiry date is a previously determined date after which something should no longer be used, either by operation of law or by exceeding the anticipated shelf life for perishable goods. Expiration dates are applied to selecte ...

Release

''Dive!'' premiered in October 2009 at the

Gig Harbor Film Festival Gig or GIG may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Gig'' (Circle Jerks album) (1992) * ''Gig'' (Northern Pikes album) (1993) * ''The Gig'', a 1985 film written and directed by Frank D. Gilroy * GIG, a character in ''Hot Wheels AcceleRacers'' ...

, where it won the Audience Choice Award. It has gone on to win awards at many other film festivals, including Best Documentary at the

DC Independent Film Festival The DC Independent Film Festival (DCIFF) is a film festival in Washington, D.C. Launched in 1999, DCIFF exhibits features, animation, shorts and documentaries from around the world, focusing on cutting-edge ideas, new visions and advances in the c ...

and Best Film at the

Dutch Environmental Film Festival Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People ...

External links

* * 2010 films American documentary films Waste collection 2010 documentary films DIY culture Documentary films about food and drink Documentary films about Los Angeles 2010s English-language films 2010s American films {{environment-documentary-film-stub