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.

This is mastery. We feel joy and fear with the owners and get to experience what they experience. We see the blooming power of nature and threatening danger of nature. We feel with the animals and we see the wonders arise we needed to see... to understand again how important it is to preserve and cherish nature.

For me, this is mastery of storytelling. This not a dictation of "you need to learn this" but an EXPERIENCE. The well crafted B roll inserts tell their own story, there are peaks and lows in the tension, a fast pace - like a motion picture with a script... because I think the editors had one before cutting these tons of material into this film. This is a well crafted story, well shot images and INTENSE content to be told. This is how I want to see ALL documentaries ever made look like... like the stories that most grab us, influence us, change us: with heros and villains and villains becoming even friends (like the "pest"s they encountered and could incorporate into their farm!). The sound design is a major part of this - and the animal sequences, cut together well crafted like Disney's "Beautiful desert" documentary, a milestone back then. This documentary changed a part of me - forever.

I watched the pre-screening a few days ago and wow, this is just a really good documentary. I'm in filmmaking and the production value of this just oozes out! Awesomely shot. I cried a lot during this, multiple times, it's an engaging ride.

The story is very compelling, especially for people who are already into connecting with nature and for sustainability. And it's very inspiring for those who are new to the subject.

(Only criticism would be that there is a little bit too much explaining by voiceover narration, but it's okay, American films and docus tend to do that for viewers).

This movie is Gorgeous! Strikingly so! So much even that im now very much interested in learning the ropes to be able to capture life in a similar fashion to how John has done it. In addition to the fantastic filmatography the movie does capture the life on the farm with all its struggles and successes very well. One truly feels capitivated by it all, which is greatly enhanced by some overly emotional music that never seems to catch a break. One thing i was constantly left wondering about once the thought arose was how this whole endevour really got funded, as in what the loan the Chesters got and on what terms. Like some other reviewers have pointed out the economy of this farm does seem a bit of at the start, and i do think there are some important details left out in the movie that would reveal the true cost for permaculture farming. But without the details i can only remain dubious to the replicability of whats shown, especially given the plentitude of help the couple gets from all sorts of people. All in all it is a film that can easily make one dream of the possibilities of another life, and of the beauty of it all, especially when shared together with a wonderful partner and a trusty companion.

"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.