Environmental Studies

The Real Dirt on Farmer John
(Special Educational Package)

Directed by: Taggart Siegel
Produced by: Teri Lang and Taggart Siegel

Winner of 31 International Film Festivals

"A loving, moving, inspiring, quirky documentary."
- Roger Ebert

“An extraordinarily personal and invigorating saga of one man’s reclamation of traditional American ideals… this symbiotic artistry is surely one of the greatest films ever made about America’s farming traditions.”
- Jeff Shannon, The Seattle Times

“Unbelievably special…a real and gripping story told with insight and humor.”
- Al Gore, former Vice-President

“…one man's extraordinary life as a gateway to a larger history of tragedy and transition. It's an unflinching account of what farming takes—and, more important, what it gives back...”
- Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times

The Real Dirt on Farmer John
(Non-Theatrical Home Edition)

Directed by: Taggart Siegel
Produced by: Teri Lang and Taggart Siegel

Winner of 31 International Film Festivals

The epic tale of a maverick Midwestern farmer. An outcast in his community, Farmer John bravely stands amidst a failing economy, vicious rumors, and violence. By melding the traditions of family farming with the power of art and free expression, this powerful story of transformation and renewal heralds a resurrection of farming in America.

Journey with Brazilian filmmaker Denise Zmekhol to the heart of the Amazon rainforest in search of the indigenous children she photographed fifteen years ago. This film invites you to see through the eyes of these remarkably resilient people whose lives are transformed by a road carved through their forest home by an outside world. From Chief Amir Surui’s embattled efforts to stop illegal loggers to the assassination of legendary rubber tapper Chico Mendes, this poetic and visually stunning film engages our senses and sympathies as global issues take on a profound human perspective.

LICENSE	PRICE
Home Viewing	$21

Disenchanted Forest

Directed by: Sarita Siegel
Produced by: Taggart Siegel

We call them o-rang-u-tans, which literally means "forest persons" in the Malay and Indonesian languages. They are the only great apes native to Asia. Of all the apes, they are the closest to man in genetic makeup. And they face extinction.

LICENSE	PRICE
University and College	$250
High School, Community Libraries & Non Profits	$100
Home Viewing	$23.99

“It gets in your blood,” says a resident of Picher, Oklahoma about his sense of hometown pride. His words, however, take on a powerful irony in this documentary about the toxic legacy of Picher’s lead mining industry. Since their town was declared a Superfund site in 1981, Picher’s residents have been forced to choose between preserving their image of the American dream and preserving their health. THE CREEK RUNS RED carries us into the heart of this sharply divided community to reveal with extraordinary intimacy and insight the full human tragedy of environmental catastrophe. 

Modern industrial agriculture is destroying the earth: desertification, water scarcity, toxic cocktails of agricultural chemicals pervading our food chains, ocean ecosystem collapse, soil erosion and massive loss of soil fertility.

Our ecosystems are overwhelmed. Humanity's increasing demands are exceeding the Earth's carrying capacity. A simple recipe to save the world? One man and a bucket of cow dung. Are you crazy?

Return to Tarawa: The Leon Cooper Story

Directed by: Steven Barber
Produced by: Leon Cooper

In 1943 US Navy ensign Leon Cooper was charged with protecting the lives of hundreds of US Marines in the first major US amphibious assault upon the heavily defended Japanese stronghold Tarawa, an island archipelago in the South Pacific. Sixty-six years later Leon decided to return to the scene of his first (of six) battle experience because he had learned that the remains of many Americans still lay where they fell during the battle of “Bloody Tarawa,” in unmarked graves. Academy Award nominated actor Ed Harris narrates this veteran’s emotional struggle with his past.

For Mature Audiences.

LICENSE	PRICE
University and College	$250
High School, Community Libraries & Non Profits	$99.95
Home Viewing	$24.95