Acton Film Series: Dog Days: One Nation. Underdog.
Plunging into the colorful, micro-entrepreneurial world of street vending in the nation’s capital, Dog Days follows two unlikely business partners as they challenge the status quo by offering a gourmet alternative to the ubiquitous hot dog. Coite, an unemployed industrial engineer with no kitchen experience, enlists his idiosyncratic, harp-playing Aunt Deane to launch a new business, “Food Chain.” Staking his meager life savings on the new venture, he hopes to help the city’s 300 remaining street vendors appeal to consumers in a competitive culinary market. In the process he must battle the DC government’s regulatory stranglehold over his industry. The stakes intensify when Coite starts working with his first vendor, Siyone — a former refugee from East Africa, hot dog vendor, and mother of four. She takes a risk and sells Coite’s jerk chicken wraps, straining already tense relationships with her suppliers. Will Coite’s gastronomic vision turn into a street-food sensation? Or will hostile regulations and a tough economic climate put his dreams on hold? Will Siyone’s desire to build her small business be enough to provide for her growing family? Filmed over the course of four years, Dog Days journeys to a world within a world where the underdogs of DC street vending speak for a nation wondering if the American Dream can still become a reality.
Dog Days Trailer from Kasey Kirby on Vimeo.
