As an outdoor family gathering unfolds, so do unsettling decisions in alimentative practices. This film explores the paradox of consumption and care, where the presence of some animals makes others conspicuously absent. Drawing from Carol J. Adams’ concept of the absent referent, Under the Tooth meditates on the quiet erasures within shared rituals—where the act of eating is both deeply familiar and haunted by what, or who, is no longer there. In addition to hand-processed 16mm sound stock film, 16mm film was stitched into with a sewing machine to reinforce concepts related to the ties that bond us to the things we consume on a daily basis.