66Teachers at East Shore High School (formerly the Alpine Life and Learning Center) in Orem didn't appreciate the difference until they looked into the possibility of having vending machines removed from the school after noticing that classroom behavior was being affected by their students' steady intake of candy and soda. Representatives of Hansen Vending in Provo explained that the machines were actually saving lives, by removing the need for students to risk traffic-related fatalities by driving to a Maverik or 7-11 to get their cookie, candy or soda fix.

Greenstreet, some will recall, took an impressive leap into filmmaking in 2004 by pointing a camera at the brouhaha that ensued after it was announced that controversial documentarian and vocal George W. Bush critic Michael Moore had been invited to speak at Utah Valley State College just weeks prior to the 2004 general election.

The resulting film, "This Divided State," earned glowing notices at film festivals (it tied for an audience award at the Santa Cruz Film Festival) and played in a few local theaters before being distributed on DVD by specialty publisher The Disinformation Company.

"Killer at Large," the second major feature from Greenstreet, 29, and producer pals Bryan Young, 28, and Elias Pate, 27 -- the trio operate collectively as ShineBox Media Productions -- doesn't just capture an isolated social conflict. This time around, the focus is on an issue instead of an event: the far-reaching public and private health costs of rapidly proliferating obesity among American citizens.

It's the kind of hot topic that could capture the public imagination, as happened in 2004 with the hugely profitable release of "Super Size Me," in which documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock very personally examined the fast food industry as a possible contributor to rising obesity by subjecting himself to an all-McDonald's diet for 30 days.

The idea for "Killer," however, didn't originate with the filmmakers. Greenstreet became interested in obesity after responding to an ad on craigslist and meeting Shawn Talbott, a nutritional biochemist who lives in Draper and became the film's executive producer.

"I went into this project thinking basically what I think the layman thinks" about combating obesity, Greenstreet said. Essentially that we'd all be fine "if people just exercise more and eat less. Maybe outlaw McDonalds."

All three filmmakers, however, quickly became passionate about the topic. Making the film, Young said, turned out to be both a financial opportunity and the chance to sound a vitally important warning about a looming health crisis that's been largely ignored.

What, me worry?

As documented in the film, Richard Carmona, Surgeon General of the United States under George W. Bush from August 2002 to August 2006, has publicly suggested that obesity, with all of its related concerns is a more present danger to American lives than terrorism and, if left unchecked, will far outstrip the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the total number of American lives lost.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently estimated that at least 22 percent of adults in all but six U.S. states are obese, meaning that they have a BMI number of 30 or higher. (BMI, or Body Mass Index, is a calculation that estimates body fat mass. A BMI of between 18.5 and 24.9 is considered normal.) In 2005, the advocacy group Trust for America's Health reported that 119 adult Americans, or 64 percent of the adult population of the United States, are either obese (BMI of 30 or higher) or overweight (BMI between 25 and 29.9).

The overall percentages for children are a little bit better. Recent CDC data shows that just 16 percent of U.S. children ages 6-19 are either overweight or obese. The gap is closing quickly, however -- a CDC report released in 2004 showed that the percentage of overweight or obese children has tripled since 1980.

Yet even though most people are aware that Americans have, on average, become significantly heavier in recent decades, there's little to no public clamor for protection from Twinkies, or corn syrup.

"I think people think they've heard it all before," said Talbott. And not only that, but, as Greenstreet did, they think they already know everything that needs to be done to fix the problem.

"We hear all the time that all you have to do is eat less and exercise more," Talbott said. "People hear that so often it's what everybody believes now."

Talbott, 40, said that the solution is actually more complex. It is important, he said, to eat less and exercise. It's at least equally important, however, to manage stress and get adequate sleep. For example, Talbott said, sleeping less than the generally recommended eight hours per night affects the body's chemistry by increasing blood sugar levels. People feel hungrier, especially for sweet, high-sugar foods.

And there are problems beyond the realm of personal health maintenance. Pate said that people have become increasingly susceptible to thinking about food purely in terms of its cost. "We've oversimplified the act of eating to this idea of filling up the gas tank," he said. "The idea most specifically in the U.S. is that what makes food a great value is its low price."

In other words, all other considerations in deciding what to eat are secondary to cost. It's a perspective that the married father of two understands. "It's a priority for me and my family to eat well," Pate said, "but I feel the pinch."

And while choosing food carefully can result in long-term savings in areas like health cares costs, Pate said, "there's not a huge, immediate incentive for people to eat well."

The importance for Talbott, 40, of getting people to think differently is such that he took out a second mortgage on his home to pull together enough money to provide the film's productions costs, roughly $250,000.

He's hopeful that "Killer at Large" will shock people and, so far, pleased with what he's seen. The film, Talbott said, has been "put together in such a way that it's emotional, it's intellectual, it's very visceral."

Providing intellectual oomph was the first big challenge to the filmmakers, Greenstreet said. The trio spent about eight months buried in reading material. "We literally had around 4,000 pages of printed research" from the Internet alone, Greenstreet said. "My apartment was just littered, wall-to-wall."

The upshot of all the weeks of reading, Greenstreet said, is that "I almost feel like I have a degree. Myself and Bryan and Elias could probably write a scientifically sound book on the issue."

And speaking of books, the filmmakers read plenty of them. "We bought every book that we could about the topic, on both sides of the issue," said Young. One of the first things the filmmakers discovered, however, is that, as Young put it, "there's really not two sides. There's this obesity problem and then there's the industry that pays people to ignore it or deny it publicly."

When it was time to start collecting interviews, Pate said, the filmmakers found that almost everyone considered an expert on some facet of obesity was happy to speak with them. When they tried to speak to people with any sort of counterclaim to the general idea that obesity is a public health crisis, however, they ended up with a lot of refusals to comment.

"We talked with teacher after teacher about how No Child Left Behind" -- the federal program enacted by George W. Bush to improve public education -- "actually contributes to obesity," Young said. One example: With increased emphasis on core disciplines like math and English, many schools no longer teach Physical Education.

When the filmmakers attempted to speak to the Department of Education, however, their requests were rejected out of hand.

There was also the benign-sounding Center for Consumer Freedom, a self-described "nonprofit coalition of restaurants, food companies and consumers working together to promote personal responsibility and protect consumer choices."

Pate said that the CFC came up again and again every time that the filmmakers encountered material downplaying the contributing factors to obesity, and its dangers. When Pate attempted to arrange interviews, however, the CFC had no interest in speaking directly in behalf of its views.

"It could be said that we don't let the (food) industry have their shot at the issue," Pate said, "but it certainly wasn't for lack of trying."

After eventually ending up with close to 500 hours of footage, Greenstreet said, the filmmakers were faced with the Herculean task of boiling their work down into a 90-minute film. And though their experience of making "This Divided State" was helpful in some respects, they found themselves largely learning on the fly all over again.

"It was an almost back-to-the-drawing-board experience," Greenstreet said. "It was like putting together a gigantic jigsaw puzzle."

Both the filmmakers and Talbott say that the problem of obesity can't be solved either overnight, or by applying a single, catch-all solution. What they're hoping for is to inspire gradual change. To get parents to think about what's available to their kids at school. To encourage shoppers to ask for better food choices, or encourage citizens to get involved in promoting programs that encourage people to drive less and bike or walk more.

Documentaries calling for social change often point fingers at the government, Greenstreet said. "The government is the government. If we're going to change things, change things in your homes, change things in your cities.

"That's where the people are empowered."

• Cody Clark can be reached at 344-2542 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

"Killer" at University Mall

What: Be among the first to see the new documentary "Killer at Large" at a special screening at Festival Cinemas behind University Mall in Orem.

When: Friday, 7 p.m.

Cost: $5

Info: www.killeratlarge.com/