The Real Dirt on Farmer John: Agrarian Hero Walks the Organic Talk

John Peterson might be the most flamboyant 50something farmer you've ever encountered. He wears ball gowns and feather boas to plow his fields. He enjoys making brooches in his spare time. He has a young girlfriend named Lesley, and together the two like to sing and dress up like bumblebees. In short, he's just the sort of oddball subject that a documentarian would kill for. As luck would have it, director Taggart Siegel has been friends with John for over 25 years, ever since John's farm was an "art and agriculture" commune. The two have collaborated on a variety of projects (including a film adaptation of Tess of the D'Urbervilles). Now Taggart turns his camera on John, presenting an absorbing account of how his friend nearly lost his land during the 1980s farm crisis, but managed to make it solvent again. At times, the doc plays like an extended infomercial for John's new company, but the agrarian fantasy is so compelling here that the revitalization of the American family farm begins to seem not just possible, but probable.