"Coldwater Kitchen," a documentary that examines incarceration and life after prison through the stories people who participated in a culinary program at a Michigan prison, will screen Saturday, Aug. 22, at the Traverse City Food & Wine festival.
The film, produced by the Detroit Free Press, takes viewers inside Lakeland Correctional Facility in Coldwater. There, Chef Jimmy Lee Hill trains students in the culinary arts — knife skills, French sauces, how to prepare lobster — as a foundation for finding work in fine dining restaurants on the outside.
It features Hill and three students, one who faces a life sentence in prison, one who battles opioid addiction and one who returns to the city where he had sold drugs, sharing the students' stories
of struggle, crisis and potential in prison and when they leave incarceration.
The evening includes a post-film discussion with co-director Mark Kurlyandchick, Chef Dink Dawson, Chef Bradley Leonard, Chef Ernest Davis and Hill, moderated by Matt Rodbard, a writer, editor and host of the podcast "This is Taste."
“We can’t wait to see what Traverse City and the festival’s guests think of Chef Hill’s remarkable program," said Kurlyandchik in a news release about the screening. The Traverse City Food & Wine festival runs from Aug. 19 through Aug. 23.
"Coldwater Kitchen" premiered in 2022 at DOC NYC, the largest documentary film festival in the country. It has screened across the country and globally, and won the 2023 James Beard Foundation Media Award for best documentary.
'Coldwater Kitchen'
When: Doors open at 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 22
Where: City Opera House, 106 E. Front St., Traverse City
Tickets: Single ticket prices range from $11.80 for student admission to $111 for dinner and a movie and are available at tickets.traversecityfoodandwine.com/events/2026/coldwater-kitchen
The four ticketing options are:
- The screening, a multicourse tasting (prepared by S2S | Sugar to Salt), a beverage and dessert at $111
- The screening and dessert (Black Magic Cake prepared by one of the film's stars) at $33.40
- A student screening ticket at $11.80
- A VIP Dining table ticket that includes a table for eight, a multicourse tasting, a beverage and donations to the City Opera House and The Film Collaborative
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 'Coldwater Kitchen' doc to screen at Traverse City Food & Wine
