Halfway through the documentary A Life on the Farm, one of Charles Carson’s neighbors recalls the time at Charles’ brother’s funeral service that Charles leapt over the open grave, sat down in the dirt that would be used to fill in the hole, and played “All Things Bright and Beautiful” on a harmonica for the mourners and his brother’s casket. “It was very touching,” the neighbor recalls, “and a little disturbing.” That assessment sums up this film nicely.

Charles Carson returned to Coombe End Farm in rural Somerset, where he had grown up, to care for his elderly parents and disabled older brother, leaving his wife and children behind.  He brought with him a camera and a VHS camera and made recordings and took photos, producing a series of VHS cassettes entitled “Life on the Farm” that he would circulate to his neighbors.  He documented all aspects of his life and farm work, everything from holidays to the birth of cows to the death (and burial) of his cat. He also documented his mother and father’s deaths, taking what might be the first selfies with her corpse and wheeling her body out to the barnyard so the cows could bid her farewell.  He documented his experiences with extreme creativity and a constant, completely upbeat attitude – everything is “absolutely wonderful.”

Carson’s films have been on the internet, so this documentary more concerns his neighbors remembering him and others providing context and insight. His neighbors point out that for all his eccentricity, he was both death-positive and life-positive.  He spent most of his senior years taking care of his family and the farm, selflessly, and documented it all, as if to say that people who do not live on farms need to know what life on a farm is actually like. As one commentator points out, the films are almost Pythonesque in their surrealism, which might either indicate a brilliant, creative mind trying to share his joy for life with as many people who will watch the tapes as possible, or possibly a disjointed mind that eventually began to go senile.

As a result, this documentary can give all the feels – joy, sadness, disbelief, amazement, concern and shock. The film seems to start by having fun by laughing at Carson, but by film’s end the viewer has experienced a full portrait of a creative, joyful, singular, eccentric man who, over a decade after his death, is finally connecting to the audience he always wanted for his tapes – one that enjoys watching them and shares in his joy.

A Life on the Farm is not a horror film, not even close despite the repeated showing of corpses and graveyards. It is a celebration of life and film, very touching, and a little disturbing.

9 out of 10