BY KAREN BOSSICK
The experiment in hardpan farming started when Academy Award winning director John Chester and his wife were evicted from their apartment in Los Angeles because of their dog’s barking.
They acquired a foreclosed farm an hour north of the city and, over seven years, turned the scrubby land into a visually appealing haven where everything works together from the geese that eat the snails to the hawks that keep other birds from ravaging the fruit.
Chester’s award-winning 2018 film, “The Biggest Little Farm,” will be shown at 4:30 and 7 p.m. today—Thursday, Nov. 14--as part of the Sun Valley Center for the Arts’ BIG IDEA project “Marketplaces: From Open Air to Online.”
The film will be shown at the Magic Lantern Cinemas in Ketchum. Tickets are $10 for members of The Center and $12 for nonmembers, available at www.sunvalleycenter.org, by calling 208-726-9491 or at The Center’s box office at 191 Fifth Street East in Ketchum.
The film chronicles the Chesters’ eight-year quest to transform the 200 acres of barren farmland using old-fashioned farming methods. The cinematography is captivating down to the incredible close-ups of snails. So are the individual stories dealing with animals from predators to Emma the Rooster and Greasy the pig, who had a thing going on.
The film has the heart of a Lassie movie, while providing a blueprint for better living and healthier planet.
“While this film is unbelievably gorgeous, it also delivers a vital message about farming practices,” said Kristine Bretall, The Center’s director of Performing Arts. “The Chesters’ desire to have a farm that upends conventional farming practices results in some roadblocks that would bring most of us to our knees. Their dogged determination is inspiring and the results they achieve simply astonishing.”