For fourteen years, photojournalist Scott Strazzante, a Pulitzer prize-winning photographer at the Chicago Tribune, tracked the evolution of a typical Illinois family farm through its transformation into a suburban subdivision. With housing sprawl replacing grazing land and a Walmart built on open fields where crops once grew, this award-winning documentary depicts a phenomenon all too familiar in rural areas. In doing so, it conveys the multi-faceted and dynamic nature of place, land use, and identity.
Strazzante documents the stories of the people affected by change through the use of parallel imagery and accompanying commentary from both families who have lived at the site over the past decade and a half- the Cagwins, the original owners/farmers and the Grabenhofer family, the current homeowners living in the new tract community. The simultaneously personal and pragmatic issues faced by both families, when juxtaposed alongside one another, invokes a re-evaluation of the meaning of home, community, and the American condition. A preview of the 7 1/2 minute film can be viewed below, and click here for the full-length version.
What is particularly unique about this format is that it does not convey an opinion, judgement or specific message- it simply documents the history of a place through the images and words of those who have inhabited it. This methodology leaves viewers to interpret the cultural and environmental implications of America's changing landscapes for themselves.
An innovative means of storytelling, this film is not only a moving portrait of two families, but a catalyst for increasing awareness of social and economic equity, while highlighting the complexities inherent in addressing land use issues in conjunction with environmentalism, culture, and ecology. To learn more and share your thoughts on this film, click on the image below.
Regardless of one's opinion or position on the subject, the disappearance of the traditional small farm in America, as depicted through the story of this piece of land in Illinois, will, at the very least, get you thinking about development and how America's future can be shaped by our needs and decisions... And that's a pretty good place to start.
