Know Your Mushrooms: A Review

Know Your Mushrooms is a pretty hilarious film that brings viewers into the world of mushroom hunters and their subculture. I enjoy eating mushrooms, and am fascinated by them, but have never learned enough about them to be able to ID most, and certainly don't know enough to go into the woods to forage for mushrooms for my dinner. But, they do captivate me, and I would one day like to be comfortable collecting mushrooms for my dinner (maybe with an experienced mycologist by my side!)
Anyways, this movie put my husband right to sleep, but I thought it was funny and entertaining. The introduction has a very 70's feel (even though it is a 2008 film) and makes you feel like you are embarking on a magic-mushroom 'trip'. The majority of the film surrounds the 2007 Telluride Mushroom Festival... mushroom lectures, mushroom hunting day trips, mushroom parades, and lots of cooking with mushrooms. It honestly looks like a lot of fun, especially since Telluride is one of the most beautiful places on Earth!
Interspersed throughout the festival highlights are zany stories from the mushroom gurus and well as lots of fascinating facts about mushrooms. Some mushroom have medicinal properties that can help auto-immune problems or inhibit tumor growth. Other mushrooms can be used to clean up oil spills or other areas of pollution. Mushrooms can even be used to bleach paper white (a much safer alternative than the dioxin-producing bleach that is currently used).
I didn't learn a whole lot from this film, as I have been fascinated by mushrooms for awhile and have read a couple of books about them already (my favorite was Mycellium Running, by Paul Stamets, and you can read my review here). However, I thought the film was definitely worth the watch for the entertainment alone. Even though it is a modern film, I felt like I had stepped back in time, and I enjoyed getting a peak into the subculture of mushroom fanatics.