Customer Reviews

The Garden

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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

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.

This movie covers the fight by a group of south central families to avoid having a 13 acre garden in South Central Los Angeles destroyed. There is a lot of detailed history of this battle, but the producers skillfully focused on presenting the major events and players in order to give the viewer an understanding of the conflict, rather than presenting the details of the litigation surrounding the 13 acres.

The summary is this: after LA police officers were acquitted of charges of beating Rodney King, one of the things L.A. did to try to improve community relations was to help start a community garden on 13 acres. The film gives ground level and aerial views of the lush garden that resulted with plots tended by local families, mostly spanish speaking immigrants. There were banana, walnut and papaya trees, corn, lettuces, squash, etc. It was open from dawn to dusk. Families, senior citizens and children all worked together and they eventually developed a democratically based group that set rules and alloted land, and represented them in their fight to keep it when the garden was slated for destruction by a developer purchasing it from the city.

This film covers many issues of American society that we have struggled with for over 100 years - poor nutrition in low income neighborhoods, community building, minority rights and representation, land development and political dealmaking, the conflicts between different ethnic low income groups, community activism, etc.

After watching the film I was saddened and angered at what in the end really killed the garden - the anger of the developer who said he wouldn't sell the land at ANY price. Despite national attention, celebrity involvement, funding from the Annenburg foundation to buy the land at a fair price, etc. etc. one man had the power to destroy or preserve the community garden, and he choose to destroy it.

However, today I did some online research to see what has happened to the south central farmers since the destruction of their garden. Though they lost the battle, they have gone on to develop a new garden elsewhere, and are using it to provide low income families with fresh fruits and vegetables, to provide education on nutrition and organic gardening, and now to generate income by selling produce to a Whole Foods store. I'm thrilled to see that these people have gone on to build something even bigger, and perhaps provide healthy food for more families. However, the new garden isn't in the community, and I would guess that less people from south central are able to be involved each day due to the distance from the current garden to their community.

This is a great film to watch with children as it illustrates the difficulties of immigrants, the importance of exercising democratic rights, how the political and legal system work, how community organizers who have accomplished great things sometimes later use their power to enrich themselves at their communities' expense, how we struggle with our prejudices against people with less education, lower income, and lack of facility with the English language.

There is no voice over filling in all the details, which would be a distraction from what is going on with the people in this movie. This is its strength - we must watch and listen and come to our own conclusions about the players involved though it seems quite obvious by the end of the film what is motivating the different parties. However, I'm not sure I truly know what many of the politicians did, chose not to do, and might have done, to help the farmers of South Central. If you like documentaries where everything is explained/settled/concluded you will be frustrated by this. But I think it is better that the film was done in this way because this is how life happens - we come to conclusions about the motivations of others, and what is happening "behind the scenes", but in many cases we will never know and must go forward doing the best we can with the information we CAN get.

***1/2

After the riots of 1992, the city of Los Angeles set aside fourteen acres of land not far from the downtown area to be used as a community produce garden, the largest such parcel in the United States. In 2003, the owner of the property decided to sell the land to make way for a storage facility and soccer field, resulting in a tremendous loss for the farmers who had invested so much of their time and lives working there. The documentary "The Garden," directed by Scott Hamilton Kennedy, chronicles the fight the workers waged against the powers-that-be to preserve the place that had come to mean so much to them.

The issue eventually became a cause celebre for politicians and celebrities alike, with people like Dennis Kucinich, Darryl Hannah, Joan Baez and Willie Nelson getting in on the action. But the true heroes of "The Garden" are the ordinary men and women who took on the system and proved that even if you can't always beat City Hall, it would be a betrayal of the human spirit not to at least give it a try. This is a heartrending yet inspiring film - if a trifle rough around the edges - marked by the bitterness of outward defeat and the triumph of a community rising up and making its voice heard. The "villains" may be pretty clear-cut in this case - lip-service politicians, shady dealers and a vindictive landowner - but then so too are the heroes. "The Garden" is their story.

I saw this movie at Cinema Village in NY and was so impressed by its raw, fly-on-the-wall approach. Being a New Yorker I knew nothing of the plight of these farmers in South Central LA and their attempts to take on greedy developers and city hall to save their community garden, but this story has universal appeal. An enthralling and necessary doc.

I saw this film at an IFC screening in NYC that included a Q&A with the director afterward. People who advocate of the rights of the poor to use under-used urban land almost universally love this film. I suspect the director shares their sympathies. What usually goes unnoticed as far as the story is concerned is that the city took private land through eminent domain and then failed to use the land for any of the public purposes for which land seizures are normally reserved. After the passage of several years, the city then sold the land back to the original owner at the price they'd originally paid him. On the surface, this does not seem 'unfair'. However, in the interim poor immigrants, many of whom were presumably undocumented, began to farm the land. That Hamilton failed to document whether or not these people were undocumented, whether any particular viewer feels this is germane or not, is a minor flaw in the film. Of course, their immigration status would have been a difficult topic to broach with the immigrants themselves and might have changed the filmmaker's access to the immigrant community, but it might also have served to highlight the differences between the immigrant community and the allegedly corrupt city counselors who were elected by the poor Black residents of the area. Be that as it may, Hamilton does a good job with the documents available to present the complexity of the situation, if only in passing. I spoke to Hamilton after the screening. He'd already sold the few DVDs he had with him for $20 and urged me to call or email him for a copy. I've done both, but only get an answering machine or a form email telling me the DVD is available, because of my university affiliation, for $310, even though I have no plans to use the DVD in an educational setting.

wow wow wow. i'm an LA resident and was horrified by the injustice i saw between councilwoman jan perry and scumbag land owner ralph horwitz. jan has her hands so deep in the money bag, obliviously on the take, while horwitz is too busy being racist. amazing and so glad this was documented on film. i'm sorry i was not more involved with this movement. rent/buy this film to see what i'm talking about. worth it on all levels. at least it will get you thinking one way or another.

SAD STORY FOR GARDEN TO GO TO WASTE AND YET SO TRUE OF UNDERHANDED BEHIND THE SCENES SHADY DEALINGS OF SOME PUBLIC POLITICIANS THAT ARE ONLY OUT FOR THE THEIR PERSONAL VISIONS AND GAINS. WE NEED TO REMEMBER THEIR SHADY DEALING DONE NOT FOR THE PUBLIC, BUT FOR THEIR OWN AGENDAS WHEN ELECTION TIME ROLLS AROUND. IT'S THE POLITICAL AND FINANCIAL COMPANY TYPE CLIMATE/DAY AND AGE WE ARE LIVING IN

I have rarely seen a documentary that I would term a "cliffhanger" but this is an apt description of The Garden. It is a riveting story. I am amazed that I live in California, am involved in community gardens, and yet had previously heard nothing about this event. Everyone can learn something by watching this movie. I highly recommend it!