Practically all adults who envision themselves as children will inevitably playout memories of variety stores and Halloween: tootsie rolls, bubble gum, sweet soft candy, sour soft candy—gummy bears.

However, virtually no adults will picture tours of candy factories, and as will be seen, the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory really was all fiction.

Modern-day vegetarians can likely inform you that many sugary treats contain gelatin, and more importantly, they will proclaim that gelatin is manufactured from animal byproducts (skins and bones, in particular). Well, Alina Kneepkens takes these notions a few steps further, and she takes Charlie and the Chocolate Factory lightyears further—into the realm of non-fiction, for better or worse.

Kneepkens’s short film “Over eten – De weg van een snoepje” depicts the gummy candy making process in reverse, so as not to be anticlimactic (among other things). It’s a short film, so I won’t spoil it by way of transcription, but do take a couple minutes to check it out if you think you have the stomach (and gag reflex) for it. She also creates films pertaining to black pudding, and regarding rabbit with plums, so the experiences are sure to be both enlightening and testing, to say the least.

But there is some good news: vegan gelatin substitutes do exist. Even though one of the most popular stand-ins is made from algae (agar, or agar-agar), it is also used to make delicious cakes. And if the substitutes still don’t seem appetizing, all you’ll need to do is take a closer look at those Kneepkens films for added inspiration.

Over eten – De weg van een snoepje from Eén on Vimeo.

*This content was inspired by an amazing article that can be found here.