{"id":16894,"date":"2018-04-20T08:35:26","date_gmt":"2018-04-20T16:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/?post_type=blog&p=16894"},"modified":"2023-08-29T16:05:51","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T23:05:51","slug":"five-questions-with-nick-offerman-about-look-see","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/five-questions-with-nick-offerman-about-look-see\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Questions with Nick Offerman about Wendell Berry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Look & See: Wendell Berry’s Kentucky<\/strong><\/em><\/a> co-producer Nick Offerman<\/strong>, an actor of many an indie film and of course on TV’s Parks & Recreation<\/em>, Fargo<\/em>, and author of\u00a0Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man’s Fundamentals for Delicious Living,\u00a0<\/em>as well as gifted woodworker and man of many other talents, stopped by to answer five questions for us about his involvement with the film and his connection to (and love of) writer Wendell Berry.<\/p>\n

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1. How did you get involved with this documentary, Look & See: Wendell Berry\u2019s Kentucky?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I was introduced to the\u00a0filmmaker Laura Dunn by our\u00a0mutual\u00a0friend Holly Sabiston, a talented Austin\u00a0portraitist. As I was already a fan of Laura\u2019s first film, The\u00a0Unforeseen<\/em>, I was very excited to be introduced to her, especially because she was making a film about my very favorite subject, Wendell Berry.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0told\u00a0her I would come and carry cable or run for coffee but she instead asked me to help promote the film and raise some budget.<\/p>\n

2. What is special to you about Wendell Berry and do you have a favorite piece?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I was raised in\u00a0the sort of rural community and family that populates Mr. Berry\u2019s fiction. His talent for representing the human condition with pathos, humor, and respect in the realm of small agricultural communities working together with each other and also with the elements and natural resources in\u00a0which\u00a0they live elicits a set of values that captivates my attention.<\/p>\n

Among his\u00a0prolific\u00a0body of work you will find masterful poetry, deeply incisive and rousing essays, and a cohesive pastiche of fiction comprised of some eight novels and fifty-some short stories focused upon the citizens in what he calls the membership of fictional Port William, Kentucky. I am hard pressed to choose any favorites, as every\u00a0ingredient\u00a0is required to complete his considerable meal, but I recommend the novels The Memory of Old Jack<\/em> and Jayber Crow<\/em>, and the short\u00a0stories Fidelity, The Lost Bet, <\/em>and Making It Home.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

3. What do you think we’ve lost with the decrease in family farms?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, that\u2019s a very large question that I am not terribly qualified to answer, which is why I am such a fan of institutions like The Land Institute in\u00a0Kansas and The Berry Center in Kentucky, headed by the\u00a0daughter\u00a0of Wendell and Tanya, the charismatic Mary Berry. I also learn a lot from the writing of Michael Pollan and Bill McKibben and their ilk. Wendell has some very well thought out essays on the topic, like “The Bad Modern History of Farming<\/a>” in The Progressive<\/em> from June of 2017. “Through the eyes and artistry of Wendell Berry, the audience will have plenty of food for thought around Wendell\u2019s adage:\u00a0‘It all turns on affection.'”<\/pullquote><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we have lost\u201d\u00a0in a local sense, is simple, human\u00a0respect\u00a0for our citizens who live out in the country and husband our nation\u2019s acreage. The voracious machinery and chemical dependency of industrial agriculture not only destroys the health of our soils and our bodies, but it has proven fatal to America\u2019s small farmers as well.<\/p>\n

4. What would Ron Swanson think of the way farming has gone in America?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

You would have to ask the writers of Ron Swanson.<\/p>\n

5. What would you like audiences to take away from Look & See?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This film is a beautiful and thought-provoking offering in a long, ongoing conversation about how we earthlings are all in complicit in doing ourselves, our progeny and our home places a disservice by complacently succumbing to rampant consumerism. By offering our devotion in the wrong direction, or by failing to practice devotion in the\u00a0first\u00a0place. Through the eyes and artistry of Wendell Berry, the audience will have plenty of food for thought around Wendell\u2019s adage:\u00a0\u201cIt all turns on affection.\u201d<\/p>\n

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More:<\/p>\n