Iowa debut | For close to a
century, a great American epic has played out in the tiny town of Caledonia,
75 miles west of Chicago. The Real Dirt on Farmer John tells the
story of one man, his farm and his family — a story that parallels the
history of American farming. But Farmer John is no laconic Grant Wood type
with a scowl and a pitchfork. Equal parts performance artist, writer and
farmer, John Peterson has been known to switch out of his overalls into
leopard latex or a purple-feathered boa.
In the early 1900s, Peterson’s grandfather purchased and began to farm some
acreage west of Chicago. Peterson’s father farmed the same land, as did
Peterson, after his father’s death. Then came the 1970s.
As a student at nearby Beloit College, Peterson was exposed to the era’s
wild cultural changes which in turn fed his artistic inclinations. His new
student friends flooded the farm with a riot of art, freedom and rock and
roll, creating an art commune in the heart of conformist America. Filmmaker
Taggart Siegel was one of these friends. As he explains, “In 1979, John
invited me out to the farm and a whole new world opened up. I was a painter
and I wanted to explore making films on the farm, and John just let everyone
express themselves. It was the total fusion of a real working farm and an
artistic community, a melding of traditional and unorthodox ways.”
“I live in a small provincial area,” Peterson says, “and if you remember the
‘70s, you’ll appreciate that it would have been pretty hard, actually
impossible, for folks to accept us.” Peterson found himself demonized by his
neighbors as a drug-dealing cult murderer of animals and children, and
blamed for the general decline in farm fortunes.
This decline came in the early 1980s, when family farmers throughout the
country felt unrelenting economic pressures. Siegel, by then a student in
Columbia College, made Bitter Harvest, a ten-minute documentary on
Peterson’s struggles to keep his family’s farm. The profound pain of losing
the farm, and its eventual transformation, provide the soul of The Real
Dirt on Farmer John. “In the end, it’s really an optimistic story about
the resurrection of the American soul,” says Siegel, “and it starts with the
soil.”
In the early 1990s, Peterson returned to what was left of the farm,
determined to bring it back to life: “I had no clue how difficult it would
be, but I had no choice.”
Noticing the ongoing multinational takeover of American farming and betting
instead on the future of organic produce, Peterson turned his enterprise
into an organic operation, naming the farm Angelic Organics. He was soon
invited to become a community supported agriculture (CSA) farmer: “I
realized that my whole life had been about community — enabling people,
bringing them to the farm, working and playing together, sharing the farm
experience.”
The story of Angelic Organics’ success as a CSA farm over the last 15 years
is the final delight of The Real Dirt on Farmer John. The farm now
provides fresh organic produce for 1,200 shareholder families, on-site
educational programs, and employment opportunities for people who truly want
to get back to the earth — including Farmer John. :::
John Peterson will be present at this screening.
::: Sat
Sep 12
| 8 pm CSPS | 1103 Third
St SE | Cedar Rapids
Free admission | Donations invited
