Taking doc to market is now Farmer John's life

The documentary "The Real Dirt on Farmer John," a hit at Ebertfest last week, has been shown in 10 countries and subtitled into five different languages.

It's out on DVD, and a shorter version was broadcast by PBS.

So far 10 million people have seen "The Real Dirt on Farmer John," but that is a "teeny little percentage" of the world population, said Farmer John Peterson, the fascinating subject of the doc.

"There's been a very enthusiastic response to the film, but how does the rest of the world get to see it? That's the big question. You can't just go out and show it piecemeal."

And, he noted, "If people think they've seen it on PBS, they've seen the shorter version, which is much less effective."

Peterson, whom I encountered at Cafe Kopi after Ebertfest ended last Sunday, said the marketing of "The Real Dirt on Farmer John," which has won at least 30 awards, has taken over his life. He has traveled with the film to Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

He will return this summer to Europe, specifically in June to Modena, Italy, where he will be a keynote speaker at the International Federation of Organic Movements conference, which will draw representatives from more than 100 countries.

Also scheduled to give a major talk there is Carlo Petrini, founder of the International Slow Food Movement. Last summer, the Italian, considered one of the most influential people in the world, visited the organic Prairie Fruits Farm north of Urbana.

"The Real Dirt on Farmer John," the vital-to-the-planet and wildly entertaining documentary directed by Taggart Siegel, tells of Peterson's inspiring life and his three-generation family farm in northern Illinois, which he took over and then lost as he became one of the first victims of the farm-debt crisis of the '80s.

After much soul-searching, he returned to the land and rejuvenated his once much larger farm into the much smaller 22-acre organic Angelica Farm. He later joined the community supported agriculture (CSA) movement. A few years ago, he expanded after his CSA members pitched in $180,000 to buy acreage adjoining his land. That enables him to let part of his farm lie fallow, so that nutrients can be restored to the soil.

The documentary reveals a flamboyant but sort of everyman character whose life was changed after he went to nearby Beloit College and became interested in art and theater and befriended radicals, artists and hippies.

They stayed at his farm near Caledonia, prompting from narrow-minded neighbors rumors of Satanic worship and cult killings there, and then violence against his land, including the torching of a log cabin that he and other artists had built. One lost all of her life's artwork in the fire.

After "The Real Dirt on Farmer John" was shown Friday evening at Ebertfest, viewers rose spontaneously in a standing ovation. The reaction overwhelmed Peterson, even though the documentary has elicited standing ovations at other U.S. screenings, he said.

They include a screening at the Castro Theater in San Francisco, where Al Gore introduced the film. That drew 1,100 people while Ebertfest attracted 1,500, outdrawing Gore, Peterson joked.

Ang Lee, revisited

Celebrated movie director Ang Lee was so open on the Virginia Theatre stage after his movie "Hulk" was screened at Ebertfest that he could have been on a psychiatrist's couch.

One of my friends called his hourlong Q&A session Freudian.

In it, Lee talked about his father, who had been a high school principal in Taiwan, and how "Hulk" dealt with father-son anger and violence.

Lee described himself as docile but said his father was quite the opposite. Lee also didn't like the way his father had treated his mother. Lee's father had wanted his son to be a teacher, while Lee wanted to act and later direct.

"Our fathers always want us to be the Hulk instead of ourselves," the director said.

Lee became the animated Hulk in his 2003 movie by donning a motion-capture suit to act out the animated character's scenes. In one, the Hulk has a literally earth-shattering battle with his father, the mad scientist played by Nick Nolte.

"It was very therapeutic," Lee said.

Lee said it took him eight movies to get his father out of his system. After he finished "Hulk," Lee became despondent at the negative reviews. He thought he might stop making films.

But his father, shortly before he died, encouraged his son to keep making movies. Many of us are glad that he did.

And from Toronto

More than a decade ago, Jason Denis of Toronto interviewed Roger Ebert for Denis' school newspaper when the critic was in town for the Toronto Film Festival. Later, they e-mailed back and forth, and Ebert told Denis he was going to have his own film festival in Champaign.

Denis figured he'd drive down. He has now attended all 10 Ebertfests, making the nine-hour road trip this year with Graeme Maitland, who manages Varsity Cinemas in Toronto, one of the venues of the Toronto Film Festival.

Ebertfest "feels more like a community event than a big do," Maitland said. Denis also likes the Ebertfest movie crowd.

"It's a very smart crowd, a really perceptive crowd. It's more open and less pretentious, like family," he said.

In contrast, one-third of the people attending the International Toronto Film Festival are from the film industry, and many walk out 20 minutes into a screening, Maitland said.

At Ebertfest, the audience stays, even when a film is more challenging as was "Mishima," shown late last Saturday night, Maitland said.

Both young men said they have seen most of the Ebertfest films before the festival begins, many at the Toronto festival and some on DVD.

"I come down here, and I'm still totally into them," Maitland said.

"With a movie like 'Canvas,' if you watch it alone, it doesn't have the same effect as when you're watching it with hundreds of people," Denis said.

The two said directors, actors and other people who bring their films to Ebertfest also appreciate the reception. "It's a really smart crowd that's into every moment," Maitland said.

And for that reason, some of the filmmakers, among them director Tom DiCillo ("Delirious") get emotional and almost break into tears on the Virginia stage, the two said.

Nettles on YouTube

A new video on YouTube shows photographer and retiring UI Professor Bea Nettles talking about her '70s work "Flamingo in the Dark." Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH-EupmrFz0.

News-Gazette staff writer Melissa Merli can be reached at 351-5367 or mmerli@news-gazette.com.

AP Video

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