Product Details

• Actors: Pearl Fryar, Cecil Stokes
• Directors: Scott Galloway; Brent Pierson
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: G (General Audience)
• Studio: NEW VIDEO GROUP
• DVD Release Date: November 25, 2008
• Run Time: 78 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001CQS7LU
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #36,891 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "A Man Named Pearl" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

MAN NAMED PEARL - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars In Pearl Fryar's hands, everything grows, October 22, 2008

By 

Jean E. Pouliot (Newburyport, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Man Named Pearl (DVD)

Pearl Fryar is an extraordinary man, self-made to be sure. The son of a sharecropper, he seemingly has an innate sense about the way plants grow, blessed with a keen, artistic mind. Combined, these talents have made him almost obsessed about turning his modest, 3-acre property in tiny Bishopville, South Carolina into a work of topiary art. Using cast-off plants from a local greenhouse, he creates and beautiful Eden in his backyard. The film is a paean to his efforts, his vision and his effect on his community.

There's a tendency to see Pearl as a sort of backwoods topiary savant. But listen to him speak to college art classes, and you will hear a articulate man who embodies the artistic impulse and inspires students to leave their sketchbooks behind and reach into their hearts. He may not have gained his knowledge from textbooks, but from Nature itself, the source of the textbooks. The film interviews Pearl, his wife and son, neighbors, his pastor and his many friends. The "best supporting actor" has to go to the head of the local Chamber of Commerce. Though his feet-on-the-desk, salesy manner might remind some of Uncle Kip in "Napoleon Dynamite," he sems truly appreciative of Pearl and his potential to bring a few more touirists into town.

Played as a fiction, "A Man Named Pearl" would have been set as a standard against-all-obstacles story. This film is not so craven as to invent huge villains for Pearl to overcome. The standard demons of lingering racial stratification, self-esteem, community doubt and the clock will have to do. A fine film that shows what human bengs are capable of when given the light, air and space to grow. Kind of like plants.

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "A Man Named Pearl" Movie Trailer, October 27, 2008

By 

Cecil Stokes "Cecil Stokes" (Charlotte, NC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Man Named Pearl (DVD)

Length:: 2:06 Mins

The movie trailer for "A Man Named Pearl"

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Master of Topiary, January 20, 2009

By 

W. Oliver (Alabama) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Man Named Pearl (DVD)

This is a fascinating documentary about Pearl Fryar, a South Carolina man who has transformed his grounds into a dizzying display of plant sculptures. Fryar had no prior experience or knowledge of topiary and his only introduction to it was a brief demonstration at a local nursery. He immediately started landscaping his property with all kinds of evergreens and began training them into stunning shapes and designs with hedge trimmers and chainsaws. Interviews with Fryar's neighbors, friends and family show the influence of his work on the townspeople, young people (he regularly speaks to college students and give tours to grade school students) and tourism for the town. A remarkable man and film, very uplifting!