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Hybrid

Premiere Date: July 9, 2002

Synopsis

Welcome to the American Midwest, land of corn, and visionary farmers like Milford Beeghly. Beginning in the 1930s, Beeghly’s company ‘Beeghly’s Best Hybrids’ led the charge for hybrid corn against the concerns of farmers and others who didn’t understand the revolution in agriculture that was coming. But the cost of Beeghly’s obsession with corn took its toll on his family. Made by Beeghly’s grandson, Hybrid is unlike any other film you’ve ever seen as it combines interviews, archival footage, original animation and a rare dry wit to create a meditative portrait of the decidedly odd Beeghly, and the rich Iowa farmland that inspired him to attempt something great.

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TAGS: agriculture, corn, farm, farmer, hybrid

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Filmmaker

Monteith McCollum

Monteith McCollum

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Critical Acclaim

McCollum wants to understand what drove his grandfather, and in the process he has come up with a tricky and tremendous film that examines what work means to the soul: a topic that is particularly American.”

— Elvis Mitchell
New York Times