In Troublesome Creek, a decidedly personal documentary, husband and wife Jeanne Jordan and Steve Ascher chronicle the last days of Jordan's parents' Iowa farm. Profitably managed for 40 years, the Jordan farm faltered, as many did, during the agricultural crisis of the '80s. Subtitled A Midwestern—in an effort to compare the Jordan family's struggle against the banks with the right-versus-wrong struggles of their favorite westerns—Troublesome Creek takes a close look at its subject, and offers a picture of a muted tragedy in which the bad guys are obvious, but their deeds hidden deeply in legal doublespeak. This sense of capturing a mutedly important moment that might otherwise go unnoticed is the film's greatest strength. The Jordans are not made destitute or hungry by their inability to secure the funds needed for farming; they, like many others, are quietly and methodically driven out of the business because of a shift in policy that also threatens the likelihood of their children carrying on the tradition. Though it doesn't offer enough of the overall picture to become a fully informative film about the crisis, Troublesome Creek lends a memorable face to a still-lingering problem.