Directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker John Chester who is best known for his short films, The Biggest Little Farm is a surprisingly entertaining and uplifting documentary about nature that explores the ups and downs of running an organic farm. The movie begins with the filmmaker and his wife Molly finally deciding to pursue their life-long dream of owning and operating a farm based on natural organic principles. With the help of their friends and investors, they purchase the failing Apricot Lane Farms an hour outside of Los Angeles and are very much overwhelmed with the amount of work that must be done on the 200 acres. Eventually, they hire an expert on organic farming who gives them invaluable advice and also becomes a very close friend, and, over time, the crops and animals flourish. The film does an excellent job of showing the life of a growing farm by including footage over the course of eight years in which their progress in one area results in a serious problem in a different area of the farm. For instance, their goal of creating an organic farm in which all of nature is in complete coexistence with a large variety of crops and animals makes them face such challenges as dealing with coyotes eating their chickens and insects destroying their crops without pesticides. The documentary is also a love story about nature and includes such poignant moments as the bonding between Emma the pig and a lonely rooster named Greasy. Overall, I found it to be one of the best nature documentaries as a result of its engrossing story and quite beautiful cinematography that left me inspired by the majesty and ever-changing world we live in, complete with its pitfalls and complexities.
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