Farmer John may not exactly fit your idea of a tractor driver: an outrageous artist who can be found harvesting in a pink boa or wearing bumble bee outfits, an old-school hippie who was suspected by his townsfolk in the 1970s for devil worshipping, he is also a maverick environmentalist whose livelihood has been saved by Community Supported Agriculture and the Organic movement. The Real Dirt follows John over 25 years, through losing his land to the banks, to a self-imposed exile, and finally a redemptive return to the life he was born to. This is a loving, moving, inspiring, quirky documentary that was made while the lives it records were being lived. We get a sure sense for the gradual death of the American family farm, the auctions of land and farm equipment, the encroachment of suburban housing, and then an almost miraculous rebirth through the introduction of organic gardening. Fruits and vegetables in America have lost half their nutritive value in the last century, and those pretty hothouse tomatoes contain a fraction of the nutrients and phytochemicals in an organic tomato, but visionaries like Peterson are finding a way back to the land. More at farmerjohnmovie.com Video projection
2006, color, 1 hour 22 minutes, USA