Hybrid (2001)
Hybrid (Directed by Monteith McCollum, 2001. Hybrid is a beautifully made biographical presentation of the filmmaker’s grandfather, Milford Beeghly, a farmer from Pierson, Iowa, who devoted his life to developing hybrid seed corn and growing Iowa’s famous tall corn. At age 99 during most of the filming, Beeghly makes the sex life of corn fascinating, pointing out that corn on the cob is “a mouthful of ripened ovaries.”
His relatives point out his failure to establish intimacy with them, preferring silence to talk--leaving his first wife bitter and driving a daughter into therapy. Later in life, however, Beeghly remarried and loosened up. The documentary intersperses film footage of the very old Beeghly in overalls and seed corn cap with interviews of relatives.We also see Beeghley Best Seed Corn television ads from the 1950s, and artistic shots of corn and Iowa rural landscape. The film is full of quirky details: Beeghly was dressed as a girl and called “Mildred” by his mother until he attended school; in his 90s he and his second wife Alice read Shakespeare together outdoors; he demonstrates his prowess with a toothpick that saved his own teeth.
The film reminds us that during and after WWII the corn belt was praised for growing “seeds of peace” by relieving world hunger. Perhaps the images remain longest: Beeghly’s hand closing and unclosing on seeds of corn, kittens lapping up milk from cows fed with corn, tassels floating over an ear of corn, engaging in conjugal relations.
Marty Knepper Morningside College knepper@morningside.edu & John Shelton Lawrence Morningside College j.shelton.1@gmail.com
