Acres of Insight in ‘Night of the Living Harvest’

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Charlie Tennessen is a film buff. Like some film buffs, he became a filmmaker. But parting company with Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Goddard, Tennessen is also an organic farmer. His latest film is a documentary on organic farming and an homage to golden age Hollywood, illustrated in part by clips from several of his favorite cult films.

Shot entirely on his four-acre homestead in Mount Pleasant, Night of the Living Harvest is as imaginative as it is informative and entertaining. It’s also remarkable for showing what a single person can do with today’s filmmaking technology. “I did all the filming and sound recording myself,” Tennessen says. “I use a lot of locked-off tripods and the occasional drone, slider or push-in during post. I did all the editing, writing, titles and effects myself. Independent Studios in Milwaukee did the coloring and post-production sound work.”

The action shifts between Tennessen’s house, where he watches old movies (often on VHS), and Tennessen’s fields. His four acres include hayfields and woods, half an acre of crop land and another half-acre of pasture. His agro-technology is even more retro than the VCR in his parlor. His three donkeys (each one named and with its own personality) pull the plough as he urges them on. “Go, go, go,” he says as they obediently trudge forward. He calculates that each donkey equals .08 horsepower. The animals also turn the big wooden wheel that powers the machine that separates popcorn from cornhusks. He pushes a mechanical weeder, easier than the muscle-pulling chore of yanking weeds from the Earth (he does pick pigweed by hand—the donkeys devour it).

People and animals once powered the world, Tennessen’s film reminds us, but he doesn’t entirely reject post 18th century technology. He drives a car, buys necessities at the market and … there are his beloved movies: The Stranger (1946), DOA (1950), 99 River Street (1953) and of course, Night of the Living Dead (1968), bits of them embedded into the documentary, sometime commenting opaquely on Tennessen’s narrative (he’s the voice heard throughout) and sometimes just there … because. 

Tennessen’s voiceover offers bushels of thought-provoking data as he makes his rounds of farm work across the seasons. Eating 800 lbs. of grain per year (some of it store bought), his crackling flock of chickens produce 1,000 eggs per year (more than enough for every breakfast). He taps his maple trees as winter begins to melt toward spring, boiling 40 gallons of sap down to one gallon of syrup. On a macro level, Tennessen estimates that annually, 500 gallons of gas feeds each American in the petroleum-based, agro-industry of pesticides, fungicides and fertilizers—unnatural compounds that have become integral to our food chain. He admits that the growing human population cannot be fed according to his methods of farming. But he can largely sustain himself.

Night of the Living Harvest is also a reminder of how tied humankind once was to the Earth with each season dictating the workload. By late winter and early spring, food stocks are low, and Tennessen must carefully ration the remnants from the fall harvest preserved in his root cellar. In summer he hoes the grass to make hay to feed the donkeys. When his aged favorite hen dies, he buries her in the compost pile where she will bring life to the Earth as fertilizer.

Tennessen’s film is acutely aware of nature, and the favorite films he references are cleverly edited into one of the most unusual documentaries on local big screens this year. “I also need to give full credit to Orson Welles, Ida Lupino, Frank Capra, George Romero, Ernest Laszlo, Dimitri Tiomkin and many others,” he says. “Very inspiring to work alongside these amazing filmmakers from the past!”

Night of the Living Harvest will play May 26-28 at Times Cinema.