“We wanted to debunk some myths around the stigmas of eating out. Society puts certain foods on a pedestal and because of the diet industry there are certain foods we see as more diet-friendly and weight loss-friendly. That has put a damper on our relationship with food.”
Cormier owns Your Way Weight Loss, a motivation and support group that runs through the medium of online courses. She said that by the time most people have tried a few diet programs, they’ve developed an almost negative relationship with food.
That negative relationship is something she strives to set right with her clients, with the help of her team of six. She hopes her documentary can help do the same.
“You end up seeing food as healthy or not healthy – or good or bad, with words like ‘cheating,’ and that’s the language you use to describe eating.”
Cormier and Stafford chose Tim Hortons because of how cheap and easily available food from the chain is. They ate it every day for a month and chronicled that month from an angle they hope is entertaining and funny, yet also engages with and questions cultural myths about food.
“We just love that variety as well, right? You can do breakfast or supper and there are different types of foods, and snack-type foods,” Cormier said.
It was people’s strong opinions on donuts that spurred Cormier and Stafford to focus on the donut.
“It became a thing while we were filming,” she said.
The documentary, filmed entirely in the Moncton area, cost about $20,000 to produce and was filmed by a production team of five people.
Cormier said the documentary mingles formal camerawork with footage Cormier and Stafford uploaded from their phones and a GoPro camera.
“We had a GoPro that we’d bring with us everywhere. In the morning, I’d get into the car and put it on and whatever. We also used our phones so it’s just a mix of all three. And it worked out quality-wise,” said Cormier.
Would You Eat a Donut a Day? premiered May 5 at Moncton’s Capitol Theatre and sold over 2,000 tickets, on and offline.
Cormier and Stafford were thrilled to get that kind of audience for their first documentary. Cormier said she’s open to making more documentaries and taking on the challenge they entail.
“But I certainly won’t be consuming food from one place for a month again – that’s for sure,” she said.
While the process of making a documentary on something like especially junk foods can be controversial, Cormier said she and Stafford decided to stay the course, knowing there’d be a massive reaction from their followers, social media, and people in general.
“We pushed our limits of how we usually show up on social media. Our content usually isn’t controversial. This definitely brought out some opinions. That was the hardest part, when we stared, but we stayed true to our message knowing we were going to make a positive impact. Now we’re seeing it was worth it,” she said.
“I feel we could do another documentary on so many things. We now see it’s such a good piece of content that really can create an impact.”
Sam Macdonald is a reporter for Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
