Product Details

• Actors: Gay men in rural America
• Directors: Tom Murray
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: T Joe Murray Videos
• DVD Release Date: June 1, 2004
• Run Time: 74 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000LPR9S0
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #81,117 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #55 in

  Movies & TV > Documentary > Gay & Lesbian

Editorial Reviews

Review
Laid-back look at the surprisingly wide variety of gay lifestyles to be found in the rural slow lane, "Farm Family" presents a veritable gallery of candid snapshots taken by helmer Tom Murray as he journeyed around the country. Murray, who can occasionally be glimpsed in the frame and looks like a particularly benevolent white-haired old gentleman, seems to effortlessly elicit unselfconscious outpourings of past experiences and future aspirations. Pleasant, unassuming pic might find warmest welcome on PBS or cable. Murray grew up on a farm in Illinois before the gay life drew him to the city. He cleverly opens docu with a corny 1950 black-and-white short subject about rural education that featured him, his siblings and their teacher in their quaint one-room schoolhouse. The rural communities he visits don't seem very different today, at least from the outside. Perhaps surprisingly, Murray finds queerness does not necessarily translate into problems for gay men born and raised on family farms. For a fourth generation Wisconsin dairy farmer, the realization that he was gay didn't seem to bother anyone in the community, even though he was active in many groups where he worked with youths. His partner/hired hand hails from a brood with as many as 11 gay members. Family gatherings, he explains, tend to break up into three distinct factions -- the Bob Jones U. contingent, the gay group and the plain old alcoholics. Gay newcomers who seek asylum from the urban rat race never know exactly what they're going to find. For one city couple, a farm offered a perfect opportunity to start the family that they have always wanted -- they adopt five kids over the space of a few years. For others, however, the peace and quiet of the countryside can be illusory. A couple attempting to create a retreat, a hermitage without electricity or running water in the middle of the Pennsylvania Dutch country, were victims of a witch hunt when townsfolk discovered their flamboyant Web site. One of the biggest drawbacks to being queer in the heartland, Murray finds, is loneliness and difficulty in meeting like-minded gay men. As one man at a huge festive Wyoming gay gathering called the Rendez-Vous puts it, the chance of finding a gay man interested in agriculture is about the same as being struck by lightning. Gay rodeos provide communal meeting grounds for the macho-minded while the spiritually inclined Radical Faeries gather in more fey surroundings. Pic's talking heads, in couples or solo, captured in their natural habitats are hardly the stuff of heady excitement -- yet they make for rather serene gay encounters of an unexpectedly rural kind. Tech credits are fine. --Variety

Product Description
Award winning documentary featured on LOGO TV. Have you seen many stories about Gay people living in rural America? Right.not many are ever told. FARM FAMILY.. In Search of Gay Life in Rural America contains seldom heard voices from gay rural America. Stories that are poignant, funny, frightening and inspiring from men who are almost an invisible part of gay culture. Raised on a dairy farm in the Midwest, the film maker reflects back on his own roots with a look at the lives of gay men living in rural/farm environments. In this unique work, the film maker has traveled to Wisconsin, Wyoming, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Mexico and even New York City. The film contains portions from some of the more than 32 interviews that were conducted by men who have chosen to live outside the more familiar gay urban centers. From men raising children, to dairy farmers, to radical faeries, to hermits, and even a visit to an all gay rodeo, the stories are funny, surprising and sometime frightening! This is a far cry from the stereotyped urban gay culture. Informative & poignant.

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Provocative Documentary, January 23, 2008

By	Jereamy Gray "1uhavenotseen" (Central Arkansas USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Farm Family - in search of Gay life in Rural America
Facinating look at lives of Gays and Lesbians out in America's rual landscape. Reflects more of my experience as a Gay man than the slick packaged lifestyles media like The Advocate provides.

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Celebration, August 25, 2008

By	Amos Lassen (Little Rock, Arkansas) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

"Farm Family: In Search of Gay Life in Rural America"

A Celebration

Amos Lassen

We have always known that there are gay people everywhere but how often do we think about our brothers and sisters "in the country". T. Joe Murray's new documentary, "Farm Family" takes us to rural America and shows us a different kind of gay life that is very human and very warm (not that city life isn't).
Now that gay people are having children, more of us are moving out of central cities and into the suburbs and the "gayborhoods" are becoming a thing of the past. I think most of us would have a hard time living on a farm in a state where there are not many of us and we rarely hear the voices of those that live in rural America. It's a little different for me in Arkansas and living in Little Rock is a rural experience for me after having been raised in New Orleans and having lived in European urban centers. Yet even Little Rock is not like living in places like Bee Branch or Jasper, Arkansas.
Murray, himself, was raised on a dairy farm in the Midwestern United States and he has traveled all across this country to have rural people tell their stories. In Wisconsin we meet a couple who are raising five children that they have adopted and in Minnesota we meet a cattle farmer who competes in a gay rodeo. We spend time with the Radical Faeries in New Mexico and we see the gay pride festivities in Wyoming. The headliners of the film are two former lovers in Pennsylvania who live with no electricity or running water and who face hatred everyday at their home.
Many say they miss city life but are not willing to trade their rural lifestyles for it. I found myself somewhat jealous of there people but I also realize that while it is great for them, I would probably have a hard time living the way they do. It is good to know that they are happy and to see them. Like I said, we hardly think about them but after watching this informative film I will keep them in my thoughts--especially the next time I am in the cities of Marvell and Palestine, Arkansas.