THE BIGGEST LITTLE FARM
a film by John Chester
with special guest speaker Dr Gaby Pereira
Part of the SCIENCE ON SCREEN® Series
An initiative of the Coolidge Corner Theatre in partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
THE BIGGEST LITTLE FARM
John Chester, 2018, 91 min, USA, Documentary
What does it take to bring a dying piece of land back to life? The Biggest Little Farm follows John and Molly Chester as they leave Los Angeles behind and set out to transform 200 acres of depleted, drought-stricken land into a thriving and radically diverse farm. But nature has its own plans. As coyotes, snails, pests, predators, drought, and unexpected animal friendships complicate their vision, the Chesters discover that every problem is part of a larger, interconnected system.
Filmed over eight years, John Chester’s extraordinary documentary is both an intimate story of ambition and perseverance and a vivid lesson in the astonishing complexity of the natural world. What begins as an idealistic dream of living in harmony with nature becomes a humbling exploration of biodiversity, resilience, and the delicate balance that sustains all living things.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Dr. Gabriela (Gaby) Pereyra is a Venezuelan-Uruguayan farmer, biogeochemist, and food systems practitioner with over 25 years of experience working alongside farmers across the Americas, Africa, and Europe.
Gaby co-owns Yara Farm in New York’s Hudson Valley, works as Director of Operations at Chester Agricultural Center, and co-directs Tierra Viva Collective. She also coordinates the BIPOC Queer Expressway (BQE), a farmer-led aggregation and distribution network connecting small farms with institutional buyers, community organizations, and regional markets.
Her work moves between growing food, loading trucks, coordinating distribution routes, building partnerships, and developing regional strategies that connect land access, infrastructure, markets, and communities. She is particularly interested in weaving together the people, resources, and relationships that make food systems work at a scale beyond individual farms, while keeping farmers and their communities at the center of how those systems are built.
Tickets:
$7/adult (plus $5 Symphony Space Facility Fee added at checkout)
$5/seniors & students (plus $5 Symphony Space Facility Fee added at checkout)
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) in partnership with the City Council and the office of NY City Council Majority Leader Shaun Abreu and Speaker Julie Menin