"The Real Dirt on Farmer John" (Documentary) (2005) (Ebertfest 2008) - Movie Review

The influence and the zeal of participating in an art form as the movie making are quite evident in John Peterson, the narrator and the writer of his film “The Real Dirt on Farmer John”. The film which puts forth his relationship with his farm inherited generations after generation may not be as celebrated and appreciated by me as against the people in the Ebert festival would say but there is bridge or amalgamation of the peace and love era giving birth to the system Peterson formed up with his field.

The documentary which has almost the entire life history of farmer John reminds of “The Up Series” which follows/following the life of different people from the age of seven. His mother Anna Peterson amazed by the surroundings bought an equipment which made this a possibility for John, a video camera. Being brought up in the era of late sixties, John along with responsibility of taking up the entire farm maintenance after his father died, explores the realm of art and creativity.

He is a hardcore Midwestern farmer when the hippie culture invaded. It inspires him too and with an enormous land available for themselves, you can take a guess of their existence in those times. They create art from the used up farm materials, dirt, iron, masks, dolls and what not. Flowers everywhere and in a conservative community as John’s when the cultures of free love (and still is) is a taboo or may be a punishable crime, the reputation is everything. The neighbours eyeing differently suspecting devil worship and the gossip running around nook and corner of the little town where some one enters a bar or restaurant knows every occupant out there, would be unimaginably tough.

The film which chronicles the hardships and the break up/long term relationship John has with the farm is literally a breath of fresh air. Far away lands and the sounds of insects minutely buzzing our ears when the story is narrated is not a usual spectacle in a documentary genre. It is about one man. Farmer John is a funny personality with a stale expression and often smugness comes along with it. May be it is the ordeal which has turned him to it but his emotions and attachments to the land is not unclear. In the first scene, he walks the mushy mud and grabs a lump of dirt. Then takes a bite out of it and does not flinch but says a succinct taste opinion on it. He loves the farm.

There is a stage characterization in this documentary which does not blend well. But when it is a form of expression of the person of interest, soon you realize or get accustomed to it. The writing is pure in words of calculated feelings John had/has over his family, farm, friends and himself. The story of John Peterson did not move me but made me wonder and also made aware of the fact that how much the essential ingredient of human existence is been negated and isolated.

India from where I come from is a farmer’s land; at least it used to be. The difficulty in the understanding of those naïve personality for whom ploughing, sowing and eating with the family is everything, the awareness of the unity in a big world which revolves around them has not penetrated in to them on understanding their real part in it. While they provide the food to move forward the next day of this corporate culture, the minds are not collaborated. The farmer’s children does not want to be a farmer, understandable but the option of other aspiring students are not given a novel opening or an opportunity to dig in and modernize in a natural way. Rather it is been shunned and looked down upon if some one decides to opt out of the corporate fulcrum of engineering and finance. The film is a door to be opened and widened for a bigger world of new generation in embracing and cultivating this phenomenon.

For that, the film is a revelation. As an avid film lover, the reality in the true events Peterson gives loses its sense in various instances. Nevertheless, there are funny moments when John’s rumour spreading neighbour explains his worries and concerns in a rather casual manner. And the final bug song John and his girl friend enacts with a video which can be laughed and sympathized upon tells a lot about this personality who allowed revolution in his farm. I like “The Real Dirt on Farmer John” for its value it carries than the way it was made.