The Real Dirt on Farmer John
- Country
- USA
- Year
- 2005
- Director
- Taggart Siegel
- Producer
- Teri Lang
- Finance
- Independent Television Service (ITVS)
Additional Funding Provided by:
Illinois Humanities Council
Humanities Iowa
The National Endowment for the Humanities
Fleishhacker Foundation
Horizon Organics - Length
- 82 minutes
- Website
- www.angelicorganics.com/film
Synopsis
"The Real Dirt on Farmer John" is a personal documentary about John Peterson, a farmer, artist, and eccentric/innovative thinker cast in rural Illinois. Filmmaker Taggart Siegel has documented John's struggle to redefine his family farm for over twenty years, witnessing the colorful drama of John's life.
After the death of his father during the late 1960s, John turns his traditional family farm into an experiment of art and culture, making it a haven for hippies, radicals, and artists. "The Real Dirt on Farmer John" charts the end of this idealistic era as the farm debt crisis of the 1980s brings about the tragic collapse of the farm.
Against the backdrop of rural America in crisis, Farmer John's long-time neighbours spread vicious rumours turning him into a scapegoat. He is wrongly accused of being a Satan-worshipping drug dealer.
Threatened with murder, his home burned to the ground, John defies all odds to transform his land into a revolutionary farming community. At the film's close, the Peterson family farm is one of the largest Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms in the United States. Out of the ruins of single-crop agriculture, John creates an extended farm village where people and art can thrive alongside agriculture.
Impact
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. A multi-faceted enterprise, the farm now provides fresh organic produce for 1,200 shareholder families, on-site educational programs, employment opportunities for people who truly want to get back to the earth—including Farmer John.
AWARDS
Nashville Film Festival Best Documentary Feature 2005
Newport International Film Festival Special Jury Award 2005
Slamdance Film Festival Audience Award 2005
Tokatsu International Film Festival Best Documentary
FICA Film Festival Best Documentary
Cinemabiente Film Festival Best Documentary
Seagate Foyle International Film Festival Best Documentary
FESTIVALS
THE REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN continues to play in film festivals around the world. It has garnered 30 film festival awards to date. T HE REAL DIRT opened in theatres in the United States and Germany in 2007.