{"id":1370,"date":"2019-03-27T04:18:31","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T04:18:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sportsnewsforyou.com\/?p=1370"},"modified":"2019-03-27T04:18:31","modified_gmt":"2019-03-27T04:18:31","slug":"its-not-all-pretty-but-its-honest-work-in-peter-and-the-farm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/?p=1370","title":{"rendered":"It’s Not All Pretty, But It’s Honest Work In ‘Peter And The Farm’"},"content":{"rendered":"

We city dwellers are so far removed from our food that a documentary like Peter and the Farm<\/em> might seem like a foreign film. Set in the craggy hills of Southern Vermont, Tony Stone\u2019s brilliant,\u00a0haunting little movie about an old-timer named Peter Dunning is, on its surface, a portrait of a troubled personality, but it\u2019s so much more. Peter and the Farm<\/em> forces us to consider the small organic farmer and just how much work goes into our food.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not all pretty in its realism, but there is a beauty in the way Stone\u2019s film gives voice to a little-seen segment of society. Dunning, the 68-year-old agrarian who runs Mile Hill Farm in Brattleboro, Vermont, toils on the land, bracing himself for the coming winter. As he battles alcohol dependence, Dunning\u2019s farm and sanity seem to always be\u00a0on the brink of collapse. But Dunning keeps on keeping on, and there\u2019s always a ribald yarn to be told as he\u2019s doing it.<\/p>\n

We talked to director\u00a0Stone\u00a0about his experiences on the farm with Dunning\u00a0and what we might learn from the film about organic farming. Peter and the Farm<\/em> opens in select theaters on November 4.<\/p>\n

Hi Tony. I\u2019m originally from Vermont, so this film immediately piqued my interest. You\u2019re from Vermont\u00a0too, right? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I grew up in Lower Manhattan, but we would spend three months a year near Brattleboro, Vermont. Once school ended, my parents would bring me up there, and we\u2019d unplug. I lived in a cabin that had no road to it or running water. I just got married up there (to musician\u00a0Melissa Auf der Maur, who also produced the film)\u00a0last weekend.<\/p>\n

Congratulations! Having that interaction with Vermont when you were younger, how did farming play a role in your life? <\/strong><\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t really. My existence in Vermont was in the wilderness, building forts and running around with my friends who lived up there. So my connection to Peter was just through the Brattleboro Farmer\u2019s Market. My parents were friends with him, but only through the market. It wasn\u2019t until I was older\u00a0and I had my own friendship with Peter, that he invited me up to the farm. But the Famer\u2019s Market in Brattleboro is one of the most utopic things I\u2019ve ever seen. The level of love that goes into these farms\u2014you see it in the final product.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m always taken by the fact that farmers are so proud of what they do, down to a single apple. <\/strong><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s Peter and his meat. You can see the love in the flesh. You\u2019ll see the yellow sinewy fat in his steak from his cows eating all these dandelions. It\u2019s not in the film, but he has a wild orchard, and he was showing us the apples\u00a0and saying that they were the best. And they were. It\u2019s amazing what the love of the earth can produce.<\/p>\n

When you started making this film, aside from the character of Peter, what were your impressions of his style of farming? <\/strong>
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

You could tell it was rough-and-tumble. The first time I visited the farm was when Peter presented the idea of making the documentary. His idea was that we should document his suicide. He was testing us, and being provocative, but then we ended up having a serious conversation. We were thinking about it.<\/p>\n

That initial day when we toured the farm, and saw everything in balance, but also seeing how fragile and delicate it was, and that it was about to collapse\u2014we saw this moment to get in there and document it. You could see how the jagged roughness was what made it so special. We felt like if we could sum up that initial trip to the farm, we\u2019d have a film. Everything that Peter said was so captivating, and we knew that there would be more of it.<\/p>\n

We wanted to let Peter be the tour guide of his life. But part of learning about Peter and the farm was doing those chores on the farm with him and filming them over and over again. The actions would bring about a new memory or a new anecdote each time he did them. He was storing memories through the physicality.<\/p>\n

Peter has all these issues, but he\u2019s not the only farmer that has alcoholism. When most people think of organic farming, they think of something soft and pleasurable and free-range happy chickens. But this might be an eye-opening experience for some people. How can understanding the difficult life of a farmer like Peter help people? <\/strong><\/p>\n

You said it. Peter is this unique individual, but his story is universal. Aging farmers and idle hands in the winter makes people mad. These are common problems. And you\u2019re right, most people think of organic farming as this bucolic, clean thing. It\u2019s the opposite of the reality, which is\u00a0the dirtier, the better. That\u2019s why we put the slaughter at the beginning of the film\u2014you\u2019re understanding Peter through the work, and the process, and the art of dissecting an animal. But that animal has lived the most idyllic life, even if you think there\u2019s some sort of brutality, because you\u2019re seeing it put to death. The way that sheep lived is as good as it gets.<\/p>\n

Seeing my farmer friends in the Hudson Valley who are in their 20s and 30s\u2014people don\u2019t know the work that goes into what you\u2019re eating and producing. It\u2019s anti-bottom line. It\u2019s the tiniest of budgets to survive and hold on. A tractor goes down with a flat tire, and the wheel costs $500. I think understanding what it takes is important. People are dedicating their lives to supplying people with food, and it\u2019s harder and harder fighting against big ag. There are tougher regulations for processing meat, and then there\u2019s the lack of slaughterhouses for farmers. It\u2019s an unbelievably trying existence.<\/p>\n

That really comes across in the film. It\u2019s not romantic. But it seems like there\u2019s a satisfaction in it. Maybe Peter has his issues, but it\u2019s almost like the farming is keeping him going. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Definitely. When you look at him, in the film he\u2019s 68\u2014he\u2019s 72 now\u2014but he\u2019s in amazing shape. He\u2019s not sitting on his ass. He\u2019s not retired. He has a level of alcoholism I\u2019ve never seen, but he can throw 200 bales of hay up into a loft. Peter, in a sense, is thriving.<\/p>\n

When your existence is based on the land as a tangible reality, it is a completely different state of mind. It is also the most beautiful way to exist, being that present in the earth, basing your life on the cycles of the day, the weather, and the temperature. There is an incredible reward to it, but it takes work. The repetitive nature of the cycles\u2014it\u2019s Sisyphean. That\u2019s the most honorable part of it\u2014staying with it year after year to do the whole thing over again. It\u2019s admirable.<\/p>\n

The one romantic thing in the film is how Peter has all these tricks of the trade. He calls different animals with different calls. He can raise an entire field of corn with the kernels of one ear. Does he get the feeling, or do you get the feeling, that there\u2019s something being lost as big agriculture takes over? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Absolutely. He says that. There\u2019s so much common sense that goes into farming. We\u2019re talking about being able to grow a field with one ear of corn, but then big agriculture is trying to monetize seeds. If it\u2019s balanced out, there doesn\u2019t need to be 500 acres of corn. Things can be done at smaller scales.<\/p>\n

But these new regulations are, unfortunately, usually made for larger farms\u00a0and have too much of an impact on smaller farms. When you have a small farm, you have to become your own secretary. There\u2019s too much to manage and paperwork. You see that on smaller dairy farms. A neighbor of mine was talking the other day about how you need a permit to spread manure on a field with 30 cows. There\u2019s so many things that you have to take care of; a few more strains can break a farm.<\/p>\n

A farmer like Peter sees what he\u2019s up against. He has to keep the farm going to get the right tax breaks. Otherwise, he can\u2019t retire. It would be technically illegal if he wanted to sell the meat from the sheep that he butchers in the beginning of the film. It\u2019s an uphill battle. Seeing what he could do 20 years ago to now, it\u2019s more and more restricted. That\u2019s part of what\u2019s also driving Peter mad. But he wants to stay on the farm.\u00a0What\u2019s the alternative? The farm is a prison, but it\u2019s also the only option.<\/p>\n

Peter describes himself as a back-to-the-earther. But at this point, he\u2019s more of an old-school farmer. In the film, Peter says that, though he\u2019s an artist and a farmer, he\u2019d \u201cprefer to impress the farmers.\u201d How do you think farmers will see this film? Do you want to impress them? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I love that line too much. I think we all kind of identify with that. Other farmers seeing it has been amazing\u2014especially guys Peter\u2019s age. We\u2019ve talked to them after screenings, and they tell us the film ends up being this mirror for them. They know all the pieces of machinery Peter\u2019s using. They have all the similar demons.<\/p>\n

One farmer came up to us last week who looks like Peter, down to the beard, and he has problems with alcohol, and he hasn\u2019t talked to his daughter in five years, but he wants her to see the film. Everybody has their own story, but it encapsulates the dynamic that can happen when you\u2019re putting your all into the earth like that.<\/p>\n

Trying to get the film out to farming communities is super important to me. Media about farming is usually surface level. It\u2019s never in the trenches. Granted, there are much calmer farms, but the age Peter is at, the fights he\u2019s been through, coming out of the \u201970s, his story is more universal than unique. I just wanted to inject more honesty into this sterile,\u00a0bullshit idea of farming.<\/p>\n

That was the beginning impetus to jump into Peter\u2019s world. The dirt on Peter\u2019s farm is so amazing. The mud on the hide of the cow, or the endless cobwebs\u2014that\u2019s what you want. The grit affects the product in a beautiful way when people love their animals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We city dwellers are so far removed from our food that a documentary like Peter and the Farm might seem like a foreign film. Set in the craggy hills of Southern Vermont, Tony Stone\u2019s brilliant,\u00a0haunting little movie about an old-timer named Peter Dunning is, on its surface, a portrait of a troubled personality, but it\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1370\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}