The Biggest Little Farm

My daughter saw this film at the Philadelphia Film Festival and has been telling me for months that I MUST see "The Biggest Little Farm". Well, the documentary somehow got excellent distribution and I had a chance to see it in the theater just before its release to DVD (which is later this week).

The film is about an unusual farm near Los Angeles. What makes it unusual (apart from being so close to LA) is that instead of a monoculture, the farm takes a more holistic approach to farming. So, instead of one huge crop of almonds or citrus (pretty typical of this area), the farm grows many, many different things and tries to do them using older techniques which are better for the environment. The story takes place over a period of about 8-9 years.

While on the surface this story sounds VERY dull, it's amazing that it isn't. The filmmakers were able to tell a captivating story and did it very well for many reasons. Humanizing the story helped but what really helped was the lovely cinematography and music....and it helped to make the movie very relaxing and sweet. I highly recommend this film.

If you want to see a well paced and beautifully filmed documentary about an ethically-driven farm, please watch and enjoy. I'm no biologist (or farmer), so I offer no critiques about how they handled day to day issues concerning their animals and crops.

What was missing, however, was information about the ongoing finances of the farm - how much it cost to get it running, and how they obtained the capital to keep it going until they could generate income. What were the specific terms for repayment to investors? They were pouring money into animals, crops, and equipment even after acquiring the land. I was also interested in how or whether they paid and housed employees, and how much operating income they were generating from crops versus animals.

I understand that "dollars and cents" may not be the most interesting issue, but if the point of the documentary was to encourage others to pursue the same dream, then it would have been helpful to devote 5-10 minutes explaining how they kept it all going, financially.

I am so in awe of what these amazing people have been able to achieve. If we all took a leaf out of this farm's book, or salad, the world and it's future would look so much better and it would certainly be a happier place to live.

"The simple hearth of the small farm is the true center of our universe." Masanobu Fukuoka

I know some people who claim to have grown up on a farm when in fact it was a piece of arid forest back east with one donkey and a few years under a mad matron. I recommend they, and anyone else inclined to romanticize farming, see The Biggest Little Farm, a documentary so honest about rural paradise as to inspire any audience to call realtor friends upon exit.

Documentarian John Chester and wife Molly, true romantics, buy 200 acres of dry land one hour north of LA (the above "farmers" could take the trip from LA to see this real farm). They document the next eight years with love and glorious photography. They revive the soil and nurture it with a virtual Noah's Ark of eating and defecating cuties, from a loveable sow to a living rooster and lambs and bulls and critters they didn't even have to import.

After a few years, drone shots reveal a swirling landscape of apricot trees and plants and grass to withstand the monstrous wind and rain sure to come. The likeness to crop circles is another layer of the farm's greet mysteries. Rains and wind do come, and the Chesters survive because they listened carefully to expert Allen, whose death leaves them to figure out their own survival. And they do.

Figuring out the place of coyotes in the deaths of their chickens is also one of the many challenges they have to assess and make decisions about life and death, tough calls for two sensitive souls dedicated to the harmony of nature.

They revive the soil, have a prosperous egg business, and learn to live in harmony with themselves and Nature's wondrous bounty. The Biggest Little farm is one of the best docs so far this year and a satisfying emotional and cinematic experience for the whole family and its pets.

It's a documentary-promotional, and as such it's a success story as long as we don't ask for details. There is little to discuss about the film's undeniable cinematic qualities. The biological richness achieved is also remarkable. The problem is that it is unachieved. As such, it will satisfy a young audience, or an audience of naive adults, but does not satisfy the curiosity of an adult audience capable of critical thinking. I do not deny the biological success achieved. But I do believe that the authors owe the adult audience more transparency about the ins and outs of their project. Notably:

• What was the initial project as endorsed by the investors? Purely agricultural, or eco-tourism, or even cinematographic (this film being then the completion of the project, the farm itself being then only a by-product of the financial project)?
• what is the financial track record of the operation? In this balance sheet, what is the share of income from agriculture and what is the share of eco-tourism?
• what is the production (measured in tonnage per unit of area)? What is the balance sheet in man-work units?

In other words, what is the cost of success? My question is not a sly one. Personally, I sincerely believe that this type of agriculture is bound to develop. But if we are serious about getting our fellow citizens interested in it, we must be honest about the consequences of the proposed changes. The consequences are a larger farming population (a movement that is the opposite of the historical movement of mankind). Less calibrated agricultural products. Lower per capita yields. None of this is embarrassing to me. I simply regret that the authors of this film preferred ease to pedagogy. By showing a little more transparency, they could have made an excellent movie from a simply good movie. 7/10