truefilm

OK, Taggart Siegel’s film rode the festival circuit a couple years ago and was on PBS last June. But in a flip of the usual order of events, The Real Dirt on Farmer John is now getting a national theatrical release.

The film tells the life story or John Peterson, a third-generation farmer, “whose inspirational story of revolutionizing his family farm and redeeming his own life has won accolades and awards at film festivals around the world.”

That blub is a bit over the top. But the trailer for the film is nice and the film itself is dandy.

You can find a list of screening dates for the rolling release here. And there’s more info at the film’s website. Finally, the Independent Lens site has a nice Q&A with the filmmaker in which “Producer/Director/Director of Photography Taggart Siegel talks about the challenges of editing down 50 years of footage, getting his protagonist’s enemies to open up on camera and dismantling preconceived notions of farmers.”