Casino Hull Buffet
'In this 30-minute ode to gluttony, self-proclaimed buffet connoisseurs arrange incredible and unlikely food combinations on enormous plates while casino employees, used to dealing with gob-smacking amounts of consumption, ponder how a horseshoe-shaped restaurant allows for 'more flow.' Meanwhile, Sin City pigs grunt on a farm outside town, eagerly awaiting the leftovers. After all, as the farmer's wife points out, humans and pigs have nearly identical digestive tracts….'
- San Francisco Guardian
On April 3, 1941, hotel owner Thomas Hull opened the El Rancho Vegas. It was the first resort on what would become the Las Vegas Strip. The hotel gained much of its fame from the gourmet buffet that it offered. Casinos are open after coronavirus closures: What you need to know before visiting. Bauer said that Augustine Casino will shelve its Cafe 54 Buffet for the time being, with no immediate plans.
Best Short Film 2006
Society for Visual Anthropology
Casino Hull Restaurant Buffet
Thanksgiving weekend, Las Vegas: A camera journeys through Sin City's all-you-can-eat buffets and finds a kaleidoscope of characters behind the food—from tireless chefs preparing gargantuan bowls of ambrosia, to servers who bus endless plates, to hungry diners in search of a culinary jackpot and a portion of the American dream. 'The buffet is the happiest and saddest place,' says Pierre, a meat carver at the New Frontier's buffet. This documentary brings the happiness and the sadness of the buffet to light, taking the audience on a wild gastronomic voyage behind the scenes of an all-American binge ritual. Buffet follows the food: from kitchen to cornucopia, table to mouth, waste bin to local farm where 6,000 eager pigs feast on buffet leftovers. All along the consumption chain, a diverse cast of characters share their desires, their weaknesses, their pleasures, and their shames. The camera rolls as the savory promise that greets diners turns to gluttony, then despondence—and sometimes, a flickering hope for something more than just 'all you can eat.'
Director, Producer: Natasha Schüll
Co-Director, Camera: Hillevi Loven
Editors: Till Osterland, Natasha Schüll, Matt Bird
Additional Camera: Pawel Wojtasik, James Wright
Casino Hull Buffet Las Vegas
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Casino Lac Leamy Buffet
SCREENINGS
Multiple PBS stations. 2007-2010
Port Townsend Film Festival, RI, 2007
New York Food Film Festival 2007
Planet in Focus Festival, Toronto, 2006
CineVegas Film Festival, 2006
San Francisco Indie Docfest, 2006
NewFilmmakers Festival, NYC, 2006
Slow Food Film Festival, Arizona 2006
Southern California Film Festival, 2006
Roving Eye Documentary Festival, RI, 2005
Santa Fe Film Festival, New Mexico, 2005