John Chester

John Chester is an Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker, television director, cinematographer, and farmer. 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 first reached a wide audience with his primetime television docu-series on A&E, Random 1, which he directed and starred in in 2006. The series then inspired his feature documentary Lost in Woonsocket, which premiered at SXSW in 2007. Chester also directed the documentary Rock Prophecies, about legendary rock photographer Robert Knight, which won three audience awards for best documentary feature and was distributed nationally on PBS in 2010. Alongside his feature documentary work, it was the time he spent traveling the world as a wildlife filmmaker with Animal Planet and ITV Wildlife shows that inspired his interest in the complex interworking of ecosystems—a curiosity that serves him well on Apricot Lane Farms, the 214-acre biodynamic and regenerative farm he and his wife started in 2010 in Moorpark, California.

Apricot Lane Farms is certified organic and biodynamic, with more than a thousand animals and 250-plus different kinds of fruits and vegetables. With a strong focus on soil, the farm is treated as a micro-ecosystem managed through methods best described as biomimicry, mimicking the biological balance found in our earth’s ecosystem, without the use of pesticides, hormones, antibiotics or other synthetic inputs.

Filmography as a director

Awards

  • 2018 Emmy Award Special Class – Outstanding Writing “The Orphan”
  • 2017 Emmy Award Special Class – Short Format Daytime Program “Worry for Maggie”
  • 2017 Emmy Award Outstanding Cinematography “Worry for Maggie”
  • 2017 Emmy Award Directing Special Class “Worry for Maggie”
  • 2016 Emmy Award Special Class – Short Format Daytime Program “Saving Emma”
  • 2010 American Public Television Program Excellence Award “Rock Prophecies”/PBS
  • 2009 (1) Best Soundtrack Award “Rock Prophecies”
  • 2009 (3) Audience Awards Best Documentary Feature “Rock Prophecies”
  • 2006 PRISM AWARD NOMINATION “Random1”/ A&E
  • 2004 Emmy Nomination “Falling Leaves”
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