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Film/Video A LOOK APART HYBRID DIRECTED BY MONTEITH MCCOLLUM FRIDAY, MAY 25, 2001, 7 PM $6 ($4 WALKER MEMBERS) AUDITORIUM |
Last year's film harvest included a rare thing: a documentary dedicated to the genetic engineering of corn but not made for agribusiness. It was director Monteith McCollum's luck to have for a grandfather centenarian Milford Beeghly, one of the pioneers of the genetic breeding of corn crops. It was perhaps not the luck of Beeghly's children to have him for a parent: "Father was able to communicate with the corn, but not with us." The history of this isolated, uncommunicative man and the family he ignored in his quest for the perfect strain of corn comes to life with McCollum's moving use of images such as the starkly beautiful farmland of Iowa, local television ads for Beeghly's Best Corn Seed, even animation of mating and dancing corncobs--all connected within the framework of interviews the director conducted with his family. From this, he created an affecting and entertaining documentary about an unlikely subject and an uncommon man. 2000, U.S., BW, 16mm, 92 minutes.