The real dirt on Farmer John

What: Documentary screening of  "The Real Dirt on Farmer John," followed by discussion with John Peterson

When: 8 p.m. Saturday,  Sept. 12

Where: CSPS, 1103 Third St. SE, Cedar Rapids

Admission: Free; donations invited

Are you gay? Vegetarian? Politically progressive? Given to dressing up like a bumblebee when you go out to plow your fields? 

If you're interested in food, farming, the varieties of Midwest community, or the experience of being an outsider, you don't want to miss this funny, fascinating, acclaimed documentary, "The Real Dirt on Farmer John" at CSPS. Discussion follows with John Peterson, subject of the film. 

http://www.legionarts.org/film/Farmer.htm 

For close to a century, a great American epic has been played out in the tiny town of Caledonia, Ill., about 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.

 Peterson's story of revolutionizing his family farm and redeeming his own life won accolades and awards at film festivals around the world. Film critic Roger Ebert gave it 3 1/2 out of 4 stars and called it "a loving, moving, inspiring, quirky documentary."

 Director Taggart Siegel shot Peterson over 25 years of their evolving friendship using multiple media (from 8 mm home movies to modern video), allowing him to capture Peterson's alternately humorous, heartbreaking and spirited life with raw drama and intimacy.

 With the death of his father during the late '60s, a teenaged Peterson takes over the traditional family farm, slowly turning it into an experiment of art and agriculture, 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 '80s brings about the collapse of the farm.

 As the intricate weave of rural America unravels, vicious local rumors turn Peterson into a scapegoat, condemning him as a Satan-worshipping drug-dealer. Threatened with murder, his home burned to the ground, Peterson forsakes his farm and wanders through Mexico, where he is transformed by the soulfulness and pageantry of an ancient land. Mysteriously, his quest leads him back to his hostile homeland.

 Noticing the ongoing multinational takeover of American farming and betting instead on the future of organic produce, Peterson turns his enterprise into an organic operation.

 Defying the odds, he gradually transforms his land into a revolutionary farming community, a cultural mecca, where people work and flourish providing fresh vegetables and herbs to thousands of people every week.

 The Peterson family farm has become Angelic Organics, one of the largest Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms in the United States, a beacon of today's booming organic farming movement.

Mark Achbar, director of “The Corporation,”  said, "The film evolves into a deeply moving metaphor for the struggles of an entire generation. His triumphant story is essential for all of us city folk who have found ourselves despairing for the Earth and what has seemed like our inevitable alienation from it."