Product Details

• Actors: Danny Glover, Daryl Hannah, Antonio Villaraigosa
• Directors: Scott Hamilton Kennedy
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Oscilloscope Laboratories
• DVD Release Date: August 18, 2009
• Run Time: 80 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002ASVYO6
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #32,270 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Garden" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This 2009 Oscar-nominated documentary may have been made on the fly and a shoestring, but the impact of the issues it addresses about race, politics, class, wealth, corruption, and the heat of human emotion more than make up for the patchwork of video interviews and jerky vérité action. The subject is the South Central Farm, a 14-acre patch of blighted city blocks located in the area of Los Angeles that was terrorized by the Rodney King riots in 1992. After acquiring the land from a notorious developer to aid in the healing, the city entrusted it to a group that grew in number at the same time it grew bounteous plots of fruits and vegetables, making the project the largest community garden in the United States by its heyday in 2004. But when backroom and decidedly un-public dealings returned the property to its original owner, the gardeners were faced with imminent eviction and evisceration of a huge patch of green that had become such a powerful symbol in the lives of the mostly Latino and African-American residents who cared for it. The Garden chronicles with sometimes gut-wrenching clarity the ensuing internecine wars that erupted between all the parties involved. The gardeners are the focal point, and director Scott Hamilton Kennedy clearly throws down on the side he has established as right (which is hard to dispute). They get mad, and they do their damnedest to get even through every legal means at their disposal to prevent the destruction of this incredible urban oasis. Opposing forces and characters include a city council member who clearly shows conflicts of interest in her on-camera remarks, in unearthed documents, and through the comments of others whose interviews allude to the frightening political danger of going against her wishes. There's a well-known black community organizer whose history of fiery activism gained her a valued reputation that gets dragged through the dirt when the Garden issue becomes her personal Waterloo. There's the shadowy developer, who is seen only in deposition footage and heard reading a statement, but who represents vindictive greed, avarice, and the political force of money. Famous faces walk through to lend support, including Daryl Hannah, Danny Glover, Joan Baez, and Willie Nelson, and politicians waltz around to capitalize on the controversy or to offer words of encouragement that only fade into disinterest (Dennis Kucinich makes a tepid campaign stop that helps no one). The multiple appearances of LA city council member and later mayor Antonio Villaraigosa present a fascinating symbol of how political winds can shift passions and priorities when bigger deals are happening behind the scenes.

DVD special features include a lot of additional background material, including extended interview segments and more history of the project's origins and escalation of tensions. There's also an interesting conversation between Kennedy and Movie City News film critic David Poland that lends more depth to the subtext of what was happening between the parties in the midst of all the tension. And the tension is palpable throughout The Garden. As an environmental documentary and as a political thriller, the story is not only moving, it's stirring and suspenseful, with an ending that's about as bad as you could imagine. There is victory in the fight itself, but if it all makes you angry, good; if it makes you motivated to rise to your own battles about fighting over the difference between right and wrong, all the better. --Ted Fry

Product Description

GARDEN - DVD Movie

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What The Left Does Right and What The Right Does Wrong, April 16, 2010

By 

Sussex Pond Pudding (Somewhere in the desert, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Garden (DVD)

This is a compelling and sadly unsurprising documentary about a group of Latino farmers in South Central Los Angeles being bullied by the political establishment and forced off land that they have been using for many years. It is a simple story, the likes of which we are all familiar with: back room deals, greed over morality, poor people being abused without recourse, etc. For anyone with a conscience this is an open and shut case of right and wrong. It is also an example of what the Left does right, despite their many political and philosophical flaws, and by extension, an example of what the Right does wrong.

The Left has not completely forsaken its ties to decency. The Left wing establishment has, as is evidenced in this film, but the grassroots core continues to try to do what they believe is the "right thing". Whether it actually is the "right thing" or not doesn't concern me here. They believe in a higher ethical system than the one layed out in the law books. Unfortunately, the Right in America has become little more than a defender of the these laws without any thought as to whether they are ethical or not. The Right in America has been hijacked by Big Business and Israel and turned into a Capitalist propaganda machine. When a group of poor subsistence farmers can be run off their land for no reason whatsoever (to this day the land has been left vacant by Ralph Horowitz, the owner) and no one from the Right comments or cares or shows up to march with them can we blame the poor for flying the Che flag? And when the singer of Rage Against The Machine makes a comment about how this would not happen in "Anglo" neighborhoods and no one is there to tell him that Jews are not "Anglos" can we blame them for distrusting and resenting white people? The Right needs to realize that Republicans, Israel and Big Business are not on our side. We need to stop worrying about Border Patrols and taxes and start worrying about ethics and moral obligation and distancing ourselves from the things that, rightly, shed us in a negative light. It is a shame that not one of the members of any of the many Southern Californian "extreme" right groups was there fighting alongside those farmers against Mr. Horowitz and the LA City Council.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Injustice in Los Angeles, February 21, 2010

By 

Balaji Rajam "Wannabe Reviewer" (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Garden (DVD)

It was George Orwell who once said "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.". For the most part, I believe, The Garden does that. A heartbreaking true story of how the largest urban form in America was razed to the ground by corrupt politicians and an over zealous land owner.

More than the story of a farm, it is a commentary on the human condition and the desire to live one's life with dignity. These immigrant workers poured their blood and sweat and turned a 16 acre wasteland into a lush farm land. By stripping them of their land and livelihood through backroom deals, the politicians are destroying the America where it was once possible for the little guy to succeed

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars political film at its best!, June 12, 2009

By 

D. E. fenkel "intomovies" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Garden (DVD)

this doc shows the full spectrum of a nasty fight between crooked city council members, unprincipled community leaders, and hard working immigrant workers making great use of public land.

so damn deserving the academy award nomination it received.

i can't recommend it enough. it's the real life The Wire.