John Chester
Directing
Biography
John Chester is an Emmy award-winning filmmaker and television director. His recent short films for OWN's Super Soul Sunday (including Saving Emma, Worry for Maggie, and The Orphan) have won five Emmy Awards, for outstanding directing, writing, and cinematography, among others. Chester's first primetime television docu-series aired on A&E, Random 1, which he directed and starred in 2006. The series inspired his feature documentary Lost in Woonsocket which premiered at SXSW in 2007. Chester also directed the documentary Rock Prophecies, about the rock photographer Robert Knight, which won three audience awards for best documentary feature and was distributed nationally on PBS in 2010. His project The Biggest Little Farm is a feature-length film that chronicles the 7-year story of Apricot Lane Farms, the regenerative farm he and his wife Molly started in 2011. The film premiered at the 2018 Telluride Film Festival, 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, and 2019 Sundance Film Festival, and was released in May 2019 in theaters nationwide. In 2018, Chester began a 3-year book deal with publisher Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan for a spin-off children's book series featuring characters from the film, of which the first installment Saving Emma the Pig was scheduled for release in 2019 and listed on Amazon as a Hardcover publication for May 14, 2019. Description above from the Wikipedia article John Chester, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
The successes and failures of a couple determined to live in harmony with nature on a farm outside of Los Angeles are lovingly chronicled by filmmaking farmer John Chester, in this inspiring documentary.
The Biggest Little Farm
This special follows the farmers' 10-year tireless journey as they transform the land into a magical working farm and document the whole process in this heartwarming special that is akin to a real-life "Charlotte’s Web."
The Biggest Little Farm: The Return
A documentary about rock 'n' roll photographer Robert M. Knight and his mission to find the world's best new guitar player.
Rock Prophecies
Random 1 is a documentary-style reality television series that aired from November 2005 to January 2006 on the A&E cable network. In each episode, hosts John Chester and Andre Miller travel from town to town, in Miller's real-life, rickety pickup truck Jackie, searching for total strangers who are looking to have their lives changed. However, unlike other such "do-gooder" shows, Chester and Miller employ an all-shapes-and-sizes approach, with assignments ranging from a new cell phone to a week in rehab to a new prosthetic leg. The show ran for one season, and premiered to favorable reviews. The crew abides by a set of rules: the person being helped must be a stranger, the mission must be completed in one day, and no money may be spent. In order to free up John and Andre to get to know the subject of a given episode, they are aided by three producers in an internet-ready mobile RV. Capella Fahoome, Jim Lefter, and Molly Schrek, once a subject has been decided on, go to their laptops and cell phones, searching for local businesses or individuals willing to help. Typically, the "street team" and the "RV team" do not interact except over the phone, although this policy, too, has had its exceptions.