Tina Kakadelis
Film Obsessive is thrilled to announce that the upcoming documentary, Ali Eats America, will have its world premiere at the 2025 Sonoma International Film Festival. The festival returns for its 28th year, March 19th-23rd. More than merely a film festival, SIFF is a full-sensory experience with curated food and wine experiences at the best restaurants in the city. What better festival for a food-centric documentary like Ali Eats America to have its world premiere?
In 2017, seventeen-year-old Ali Allouche was complaining of pain in his right shoulder. When he got it checked out with a doctor, he was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma. Part of his clavicle and the entirety of his scapula were removed before Ali started an aggressive 10 months of chemotherapy. While in the hospital, Ali and his mother, Lt. Colonel Jen Danko, become obsessed with watching food documentaries and television shows. Now, Ali and Jen find themselves in a food documentary of their own. Ali Eats America chronicles the mother-son culinary adventure that takes the duo across the United States.
We are also thrilled to exclusively reveal the poster for Ali Eats America.
PopGun POV is a boutique-style Specialty Camera Rental Shop geared primarily toward Automotive Programming. The company is owned and operated by Greg Morris and Roush Niaghi. While most of their credits are for shows like Top Gear USA, Fastest Car, and other documentary automotive work, they are the directing team behind Ali Eats America. PopGun POV became aware of Ali and Jen’s story after reading about them in the New York Post. Morris and Niaghi, along with a small crew, immersed themselves in the lives of Ali and Jen. They traveled from state to state, were welcomed into their home, and even slept overnight on the hospital floor.
Food is a way to grow connections between people, and it’s a means of understanding cultures different than our own. Ali Eats America‘s cross-country journey is more than just a delicious road trip; it’s a way for a boy who spent so much time in hospitals to get a crash course in the world he was secluded from. Ali Eats America lets the audience in to experience Ali’s recovery, the joy of discovering really good food, and the way that flavors can connect us beyond boundaries.
If Ali Eats America leaves your stomach rumbling, SIFF has announced Marcella’s Italian Dinner. This one-night-only dining experience will celebrate Marcella Hazan, a famed Italian chef who Julia Child credited as her “mentor in all things Italian.”
