Review: The Real Dirt on Farmer John

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It’s good to see another run of former Chicagoan Taggart Siegel’s “The Real Dirt on Farmer John,” a many-years-in-the-making documentary about a family that was once the filmmaker’s neighbors. I discovered it at Slamdance 2005, where, along with “Mad Hot Ballroom,” it was one of the movies that audiences were wild about. The titular Farmer John is an eccentric farmer, the last of a line of rural entrepreneurs who battles the odds of modern agriculture and others in his community who find his dress and spirit unduly odd—it makes for a surprisingly touching and humorous portrait. 98m. (Ray Pride) Siskel

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