.MOVIE LISTINGS | MOVIE REVIEW ARCHIVE | THEATER INFO One Foot in the Field Farmer John's agrarian adventures in self-discovery. BY MOLLY TEMPLETON THE REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN: Documentary directed by Taggart Siegel. Written and narrated by Farmer John Peterson. Produced by Teri Lang, Taggart Siegel. Cinematography, Taggart Siegel. Editor, Greg Snider. Musical score, Mark Orton; music, The Dirty Three. Awakened Media, 2006. Not rated. 82 minutes. On a plot of soil somewhere in Illinois, a man rides a tractor. He's clearly a character; he looks like an agrarian Elton John as the scene changes to show him wearing a dress, wrapped in a feather boa or clad in plain denim overalls. This is John Peterson, the titular Farmer John, the third-generation owner of a family farm. You might think you're not interested in the story of some kooky guy and his Midwest farm; I wasn't sure I was. But The Real Dirt on Farmer John isn't just a story about farming. In a collage of home movies, interviews, voice-overs and footage shot by Peterson's friend and director Taggart Siegel over the last 20-odd years, Farmer John's tale is a multifaceted, inspiring piece of Americana viewed through the slightly off-kilter eyes of one man. The extent of John Peterson's quirkiness didn't make itself apparent until he went to Beloit College (the closest school to the family farm) in the early 1970s. There, he didn't just meet the counterculture — he took it home with him. On the farm he had inherited, Peterson created an artistic community of people eager to express themselves. "We called it the Midwest Coast," he says. Neighbors didn't like it (they claimed their cattle were upset), and nasty rumors spread. More pressing concerns arose in the 1980s as, like other farmers across the country, Peterson found himself in a debt crisis. He sold much of the farm equipment and a huge chunk of the land, swore off farming, and left for Mexico, hoping to make sense of his situation and himself in a different setting. But Peterson couldn't stay away. Drawn back by his ties to family and to the land, he pressed on into the early 1990s, farming organically with little but determination and the support of his mother, Anna. In 1992, Peterson got involved with Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). The farm, which he named Angelic Organics, now provides produce to more than 1,200 shareholding families. The community formed by shareholders picking beans and farm interns working, flirting, bickering and learning is a clear parallel to the community Peterson and his friends had formed in the '70s — except now, almost amazingly, it works. Instead of troublemakers turning up in the middle of the night, Peterson has people from all over the world driving down his country road to share the work and the bounty. For Farmer John, the family farm crisis is over (at least for now). He's found his community. He's proven to everyone, not least himself, that he can be creative and farm. And over the course of the film, Peterson and director Siegel have chronicled a moving history of the difficulties facing small farmers in America in the last few decades. Though The Real Dirt doesn't touch much on corporate farming, it comments on pesticides and sprawl, as John faces pests and hand-weeding, and neighbors bemoan the waste of good soil under new cookie-cutter houses. The Real Dirt on Farmer John walks a careful line between story and statement, between sentiment and honesty. John is expressive and unusual; his mother Anna is hardworking and enthusiastic, so earthily pleased by farm and family that she nearly singlehandedly grounds John in his flights of nerves and fancy. The sense of grounding is also strengthened by the abundance of old footage, which deepens the sense of history of this lone man standing against the tide. What emerges in this heartfelt collaboration between subject and director is a movie that succeeds as both an exploration of one man's self-discovery and as a story of possibility for small farms across the country. Farmer John had it, nearly lost it, got it back and made it better. The hope that other farmers can do the same simply radiates off the screen.     The Real Dirt on Farmer John opens Friday, March 31 at the Bijou. Local CSA farmers will be at the theater at 6:30 pm to distribute information and answer questions.
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