New York Times: Review: Rural Kentucky With Poet-Farmer Wendell Berry in ‘Look & See’
A naturalist’s curiosity and a poet’s gift for description: A scene from “Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry,” directed by Laura Dunn.
James Baker Hall
By BEN KENIGSBERG | June 29, 2017
Wendell Berry is difficult to classify. “Some people would think he’s a novelist and some think he’s an essayist and some think he’s a poet — and it kind of drifts off into nothing in particular,” his wife, Tanya Berry, says with a laugh toward the end of “Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry.” Laura Dunn’s documentary is not simply a biography but an attempt to show how Mr. Berry sees the world.
Judging from his sonorous voice, he may have missed his calling in radio. Throughout “Look & See,” Mr. Berry is an almost spectral presence, heard in narration and seen in archival footage. Mr. Berry has been compared to Henry David Thoreau. A longtime resident of Port Royal, Ky., he writes about the environment and the lifestyle of farmers with a naturalist’s curiosity and a poet’s gift for description.
Mr. Berry decries the industrialization of agriculture, which he believes will lead us to forget the values that come from living off the land. Mr. Berry’s advocacy has made him a hero for the organic-food movement. (He can count Mark Bittman, a former food columnist for The New York Times, among his fans.) The film introduces farmers sympathetic to his ideals, even if some have strayed.
Not all the gambits and arguments are convincing. Using time-lapse photography to illustrate poetry seems overly literal. Dismissing “people’s acceptance of the money economy as the only economy,” Mr. Berry says “the world, in fact, unless you’re in prison, is full of free things that are delightful.” He cites dandelions, but flowers are free only until someone finds a way to sell them. Still, it’s a pleasure to spend 80 minutes in Mr. Berry’s company.