This Newstip edited by Curtis Black
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Local Organic Farmer Featured in New Film
Newstip Date: 03-24-2005

Hundreds of Chicagoans have a personal connection to farmer John Peterson, the subject of the new film, "The Real Dirt on Farmer John."

Peterson operates the Angelic Organic farm in Caledonia, Illinois, and sponsors a community-supported agriculture service with subscribers throughout Chicago and the suburbs receiving weekly boxes of vegetables during the growing season. Angelic Organics also sponsors the CSA Learning Center, which provides training and technical assistance to urban agricultural projects in Chicago.

Peterson's friend, filmmaker Taggart Siegel, spent 20 years filming the farmer, who one reviewer called "a character of magnitude -- a maverick, a philosopher of the soil."

The film will be featured on

-- opening night of the Chicago International Documentary Film Festival at the University of Chicago's Palevsky Cinema, 1212 E. 59th, on Friday, April 1 at 8 p.m.;

-- and at Gallery Theater, 1112 N. Milwaukee, Wednesday, April 6 at 1:30 p.m.