The Big Cheese

Filmmaker(s)

Sara Joe Wolansky – Director

Running Time

Feature Film

87 minutes

Genres

Documentary

The Big Cheese

What is a “cheesemonger?” It’s sort of like a sommelier, but for cheese—with less pretension and more punk rock.

In places like Europe, cheesemongering is a vaunted, prestigious career. In America, it often means working minimum wage at a grocery counter.

Adam “Mr. Moo” Moskowitz is attempting to change the way American cheesemongers are seen by coaching a team of U.S. competitors to victory at the Mondial du Fromage, the “Olympics of Cheese,” in France. Team U.S.A. has never won.

THE BIG CHEESE follows these underdogs as they battle cultural clashes, personal struggles, and melting cheese while training for the ultimate cheese competition.

With reputations, redemption, and a historic victory on the line, can they finally prove America belongs on the world’s biggest cheese stage?

You’ll have to watch to find out.

Filmmaker Notes:

I’ve spent over four years eating cheese (Alp Blossom and Challerhocker are two of my favorites!) and getting to know the people who make up the cheese world.

The cheesemongers featured in this project—with stories spanning from sobriety to financial hardship, POC mongers looking for inclusion to professionals working outside the box—have enviably found their purpose and community in this odd world. Finding success would mean a chance to be taken seriously, to gain financial security, and prove to the naysayers that it was worth dropping everything to pursue this passion.

I’ve dedicated myself to presenting quirky, stranger-than-fiction stories with humor and heart; several of my short documentaries have, in fact, been programmed in the “Comedy” sections of film festivals before. Developing my first feature film, I found myself yearning for something that could be a light in the darkness; that would both make people laugh and reinvent the way we see cheese in America.