Customer Reviews

Troublesome Creek [VHS]

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I just saw this documentary the Independent Film Channel and found myself quite drawn into it. Having grown up on a farm in Southern Indiana, and still active in farming while working full-time off the farm, I found many things very familiar to me. Russel and Mary Jane Jordan fondly reminded me of so many farming couples I recall from my youth. They are an ardent, persistent lot, coming out of the great depression and World War II with not much more than their dreams and work ethic.

Viewing this film, I felt a persistent sadness, not only for the Jordan family, but also for so many small farmers like them who are having to deal with the changing tide in agriculture. The time when a farmer could raise a family on a few hundred acres or less is gone. The account of farming and farm life is accurate. The plight of small farmers today is also accurate.

I show this video during the "American Dream" unit that I teach to my junior English students. This video fits in perfectly because it highlights the classic struggle that today's farmers have, and it helps students compare today's dream with that of the past. I live in Iowa, and this movie could probably be played out in real life among many of my students' families. I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys documentaries. I have never tired of seeing it!

I saw this film on the Sundance Channel last year, and have been trying to find it ever since. Its a deeply personal documentary made by a daughter about her family's struggle to maintain dignity and happiness in a time of financial doom. Jeanne Jordan returns to rural Iowa where she was raised, in effort to shed some light on the true strength of her family. Her parents, in an effort to settle their debts to a large midwestern farming bank, are forced to sell off most of their personal belongings, so they may keep the farmland within the family. What is so great about the film is that it was made by someone who is not a mere outsider to the subjects, but a sypathetic and supportive participant in the ordeal itself. Jeanne Jordan provides a lot of historical background about her family, and also shows that although they are in the midst of bad times, they can still maintain a level of positivity and humor. It plays out like a movie really. And although there are a lot of really touching moments, it steers clear of becoming too sentimental. She narrates the film very well, filling in the details when needed, and pulling back when they are easily visible. And she says some really powerful things about growing up on a farm, which is a lifestyle that many of us cant even begin to understand. Jordan sums it up beautifully when, near the end, she states "Growing up on a farm is probably like growing up on the coasts, you can never go to far without feeling bereft in some way." Very moving film. One of the best documentaries Ive seen.

I saw this video with a slightly different perspective than other viewers. The couple in the documentary lived in my community. My mom sold Avon to Mary Jane Jordan, the woman in the documentary; she was one of the sweetest ladies I've ever known. Two of her daughters have been my teachers, and one of her granddaughters was a close friend. I wrote this review so that you would not only know that the film is fabulous and truly heartfelt but that the people are REAL. They are real people with real emotions, and this documentary captures all their very real feelings and reactions in the toughest of times. I highly recommend it to anyone of any age.

Last year I was up late trying to finish a paper for a 9:30am class. While I was killing time in front of the TV, I noticed that PBS's Frontline was presenting this film. From the beginning, I couldn't stop watching... it was like these people became my family, and I was somehow involved in their life. Two hours and a pile of Kleenex later I finally began to write my paper.

The saddest thing happened the next day when I read of the film on PBS's website-- the mother had died shortly after the movie released. To have something like this effect me the way it does is a sign of a remarkable film. This piece is something a farm family could relate to, or a suburbanite could learn from- but I'm sure that everyone who sees it will not soon forget it's story!

As I began to watch "Troublesome Creek," it took me only a few minutes to realize that my 9 year old grandson needed to watch it with me. This was a "once in a lifetime" video experience about how a farming family lived through their rough times together. It showed how the family worked through their problems together. The filming was excellent. By the middle of the video, you felt as though you were a part of the family and experiencing the struggles they came up against. We live in California and do not often consider what farm families go through to keep their farms in this day and age. My grandson learned how a family works through problems together. I wish that all school-age children could see this film. It puts you back in touch with what it means to stand together as a family and meet the challenges of life. What a wonderfully moving story!

I recently saw troublesome creek and I realized that this story was the story of my family's struggle and the struggle of everyone else who has grown up in a rural farm community. This movie accurately portrays the value system that farmers still hold in their hearts today. If I can just work hard enough and long enough, I can succeed. These farm families need to be applauded. The myth that there are only rich money hungry farmers needs to be dispelled. The true story is politics and the rich/powerful money hungry (banks, corporations and diplomats) who run the government actively villainize small idealistic farmers. No matter how hard farmers work to raise crops or animals the more they produce the lower prices will fall at the market place. Individual farmers used to actually raise chickens now only swanson and tyson hold the market. Eventually corn, beans, beef, and swine may fall to corporate strong holds and the small idealistic farmer will become extinct. Troublesome creek is this story.

This film was actually taped in my community. Many of my classmates can be seen in the sale scenes. I still remember the buzz going around the town about the film. I love it, and if you love it to, feel free to visit Anita, Iowa.

Touching, gentle documentary, made by a woman about her parents and
family, as they face the likely loss of the family farm to the awful
economics of modern agricultural life.

Done with a light touch and sense of humor which keeps the film from
ever becoming maudlin, and reveals that sometimes life's twists and
turns, even the bad ones, lead us to places that are OK after all.

If there's any weakness to the film, it's that sometimes in avoiding
the sentimental it misses a bit of the emotion, and the fascinating
insight it provides into the economic realities of family farming (as
opposed to the romantic idea so many outsiders have) gets slightly
short shrift. It would be great to understand even more than the
tantalizing bits here why so many family farmers can't make it.

Disabuses us of any fantasy we have about farm life.

A clear eyed, unsappy presentation on how farm life is cruel, harsh, and financially precarious. Even the most modest level farmers borrow lots of money for necessary operating expenses. Every year, some of the farmers have bad luck (bad weather, catastrophes, health problems) and become unable to pay back the bank and lose the family farm. Just like the city folk.

Farmers, I learned, just like city folk, are dependent on credit, and live life mortgaged to the hilt. They die owing shitloads.

Feudalism is alive and well, right here in the new world. We are tied to the land, either metaphorically or literally, and are literally weighed down by our debts.

Freedom is an illusion - everyone owes money to the bank and the Man. "The only choice we have is choosing which bill to pay first." Ouch.

Another poignant scene is when the elderly parents are watching Hollywood black and white western movies, and you see how far the real midwestern farm life is so, so far from the kind portrayed in the media. In real life, there is no dignity, no heroes, no hand of god, no cool dialogue, only drudgery and painkillers.