The Story

One of the best things about living in Park City during January is the opportunity to attend the Sundance Film Festival. Because story occupies my imagination, because the festival is relocating after the 2026 edition and because our son came out to attend, we went all-in. Features, Docs, Shorts… the full gamut. Maybe it’s a Gen X thing, and I’m missing the cultural moment – just as the Super Bowl half time show went right over my head – but I noticed a common theme with many of the thirty-something protagonists in the feature films. It was like the anti-RomCom has become genre with characters resisting romantic relationships, really struggling with love and commitment. Left me sad. I found this to be true in “Oh, Hi!,” “Magic Farm,” “Bubble & Squeak,” “The Wedding Banquet,” and for quite different reasons, “Ricky.” Another takeaway: what I found hilarious, many people found disturbing…. Hmmm….

We put aside the star-gawking for the first Saturday of Sundance, and John and I attended a full day of FOODTANK screenings and panel discussions. A beautiful integration of my loves – storytelling and regenerative farming… FOOD TANK is an organization that recognizes the power of story and visual media to educate, inform, and propel change in the food system. With so much of the population living in cities and detached from agriculture, it’s important to show people what is happening on the front lines! Check out the trailers of the following powerful films that were showcased: “Common Ground,’ “Generation Growth,” “Strange Little Fruit,” “Farming While Black,” “Café Y Aves,” and “From the Heartland.”

Most of what we buy and consume is wrapped in story – either the ones told by the media, our communities, or the ones we tell ourselves. I’ve always realized the importance of telling Flynn Creek Farm’s story not only with words in these blogs and other essays, but with film. We aim to give an honest accounting of our failures and successes and to be very transparent about what starting a commercial farm takes. Who knows, maybe somebody will watch and become inspired….I may have mentioned that viewing “Kiss the Ground” one evening during COVID is what pushed John and I over the edge. This is a recent video showing the January/February mood on our farm…… but as of this writing, the barn and silo have come down!!

Over the farm’s first three years in our care, we have documented many impressions as well as changes to the land. We’ve interviewed our team members because the farm’s story is unique to each of us. Each one of us, for various reasons, is searching for meaning in this place and trying to make a difference.

If you want to be part of the story… mark your calendar 🙂 I wrote more about it in last month’s newsletter….

Recent Read:

Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks:

One of those books that is both wonderful and gutting at the same time. To read Brooks’ recent release documenting the loss of her husband of thirty-five years at the age of sixty was like a cannonball to the stomach. I am fortunate to be in a long marriage and approaching the age of sixty, and this very concise memoir drove home the message to not take tomorrow for granted, to prepare for death and to get one’s story down in whatever form has meaning for you. It is a beautiful tale of loss while chronicling a true and deep love. I am grateful for Brooks wisdom in capturing what our society shuns – death and a permission to grieve. So much for a culture that expects mourners to “get over it and get on with it,” Brooks allows herself time and space to wallow and in so doing offers the reader the same opportunity. For lovers of The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion….