Alone, without an heir to pass his family legacy, an againg farmer deliberates the purpose of his life.
Honored by their family’s heritage, the Funk brothers were inspired to make a film that communicates the struggling spirit of a vanishing breed: The independent farmer.
With so many inspirations, the film is a remarkable aesthitc piece captured in a sub-zero winter on the brother’s family century-old farmstead in Osage, Iowa. Like so many farmers today, their esteemed uncle has become, quite possibly the last in their family’s line.
The average age of a farmer in North America today is nearly 60 years old. That number will continue to rise as independent operations dwindle in the wake of corporate agriculture, genetic engineering, and bio space production. We are witnessing an extinction and subsequent revision of values and philosophies unique to farmers who, at the turn of the century, constituted 90% of the labor force. Today, that number is less than 4%.
Through rhythms of loyalty, legacy, and mortality, LOOMS centers around the internal tribulations of one lonely, aging farmer as he faces the most difficult decision of his life: To let go or remain rooted.
Seeing our own family’s legacy on the brink inspired us, but becoming conscious ofthe issue and its effects on a national level compelled us. Every farmer and family that graced us with their story deepened the responsibility we felt to be forthright in our depiction of both the enduring nobility and harsh realities of this historic way of life.
The film is dark, quiet and relatively sad. The sense of loneliness grasps every moment of the film with its wide and extended shots raffled with silence, this is where the Funk brothers took the most out of somberness to bring some beauty out of the despair.
