Down on the farm

The documentary Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry (previously titled The Seer) hit select theaters at the beginning of July, and its beautiful cinematography is a tribute to its executive producer, the great Terrence Malick. The documentary’s “chapters” begin with gorgeous wood-block prints. Too bad the film’s storytelling vision isn’t as solid as its aesthetic vision.

Look & See chiefly attempts to communicate themes from novelist Wendell Berry’s work instead of relating his biography. The largest slice of the film lays out Berry’s critique of industrial farming, his argument that it has destroyed culture and homes even as it has raised the U.S. gross domestic product. The interviews with longtime farmers in Kentucky (near the Berry farm), who remain in perpetual debt as they buy more and more land and the newest farming equipment, are the most effective part of the film. More farmer interviews, please.

The opening sequence, too, where Berry reads his poem “A Timbered Choir” over shots of exploding mountaintops (due to mountaintop mining), is very strong. Berry’s work has focused on critiquing the overvaluing of economic gain and the undervaluing of relationships, of the earth, and of a connection to place.

In speeches Berry often weaves his own story of his farm in with themes from his life’s work, but this film wanders too much. A voice-over toward the beginning shares a letter from Berry’s close friend, writer Jim Hall, about their friendship, but we don’t hear the purpose or context of the letter. Perhaps in an effort to be poetic, the film doesn’t give names during interviews with Berry family members. We see many shots of a farm that is presumably the Berry farm, but the film never identifies it.

For Berry fans, the overview of his ideas will be old news, though it is a treat to hear Berry read some of his poems. (The author never appears in the film except in voice-over.) For Berry critics, the film will be too flattering to his work. For those unfamiliar with Berry, the documentary offers plenty of beautiful shots but merely an impressionistic understanding of his work.