American Farm

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(5 stars) - An understated documentary gem
This is one of the best, and least known, documentaries of the last few years, a personal and poignant exploration of an American farm family's struggle to hold onto their legacy. The director is cousin to many of the people he interviewed, and he manages to elicit some strikingly honest and at times profoundly moving testimony from his extended clan. Spanning a hundred years of rural history, "American Farm" explores the increasing difficulty of holding onto tradition in the modern world. A haunting and heartfelt elegy for a way of life that is rapidly vanishing in this country. Not to be missed.

(5 stars) - Captivating
This film takes you back to a time--no, make that a vanishing moment in our very own time. I challenge you to swap one day of your rushed, grasping existence for one day on this dairy farm, where the land, animals, and a family have mutual supported each other for eleven decades in Upstate New York. And if you spend that day, you might just choose it for life. It would depend on the day you arrived. It might be a day all gold and green in May, or a day all gold and brown in October. Arrive in August, the crops are gold, and you must gather every bit of that gold into the barn. Arrive in February, and your life depends on whatever gold is left in the haymow.

Robert Frost told us that "nothing gold can stay." And sadly, that is true of the family farms of America. This video captures a family in the aching process of letting go. The film captures the convergence of the end of a way of life--happening to hundreds of thousands of families--and the dynamics of one particular family. You will be astonished by the honesty. You'll be enchanted by the vistas of Upstate New York, where some of the country's least known natural beauty lies. The music will linger on your mind. American Farm is a treasure.

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