Neither tugging at the heart-strings nor sprawling indulgently across your whole afternoon, The Garden is that best case scenario of a documentary – efficient and moving, exhaustively covered but brief in execution. What at first seems like a simple story of city hall stomping all over the little guy becomes something much more complex and ends up less an indictment of the greedy and powerful so much as a look at the human condition.
After the South Central riots in 1992, a great thing was done – a city block that had burned to the ground was granted to a group working-class farmers who created an extraordinary garden from which they could feed themselves and their families. It was an astounding co-operative, an oasis in the middle of an abandoned war zone run by real salt-of-the-earth types who feed their families with the break of their backs and the sweat of their brows.
Which makes it all the more maddening when they come to the garden one day to find an eviction notice paper-clipped to the gate. It seems a developer has new plans for the lot and so they have to leave. The farmers band together to fight the eviction, navigating a serpentine path through city politics. Were they given the legal amount of time to appeal this decision? Is the deal between the city and the developer even legal?
As the farmers become media savvy in their fight to control the land, things start to break down within. Some farmers aren’t playing by the rules, selling their crops for profit. Violence breaks out in the garden. People’s egos and petty fears start to eat away at what was once a place of solace. The media start to report on both sides and an intimate situation becomes national.
With so much attention on the garden, celebrities show up. Danny Glover, Darryl Hannah, Willie Nelson – all civic-minded folks who know that their names can shine a light on whatever cause they deem worthy. No doubt their hearts are in the right place, but for all their philanthropy, it’s hard to shake the feeling that it’s as much a PR stunt for themselves, especially considering they are no where to be found when everything really starts to hit the fan.
And hit the fan it surely does. While The Garden tells the tale of a group of underdogs fighting the powers that be, it never paints those underdogs as saints. Even though these workers aim for something noble, they are still susceptible to all the pitfalls of operating in a society where the voice of the rich is heard more clearly than that of the poor. That frustration leads some to want justice outside the confines of the law – understandable, considering the dealmakers seemed to be operating in that realm themselves.
This is a complex story that starts out simple and asks tough questions about how justice gets served. Should the farmers be allowed to keep the land simply because they have raised crops there? Or should the man who owns be allowed to do what he likes with it, regardless of whether or not he’s nice about it? The Garden proves to be a tougher documentary than it may seem to be at first. No doubt your first viewing will expose your own biases and your second viewing (which should happen not long after) will bring the bigger picture into focus.
The video is presented in the original 4:3 theatrical aspect ratio. Shot on video, this is not a film that offers much in the way of stunning visuals, but it does keep you right in action. Audio is 5.1 surround, but only because what isn’t? Still, it’s all exceptionally put together.
Feature Length commentary with Scott Hamilton Kennedy, farmer Tezozomoc, and producers Vivianne Nacif and Dominique Derrenger – All present talk about what was happening off camera and their conversation is candid, though considering the fair tone of the documentary, it’s too bad there isn’t a ‘bad guys’ commentary to get the point of view of the developer and city council folks, etc.
Back to the Garden: extended scenes, protests & historical perspectives – a selection of scenes cut from the documentary, including one that delves deeper into the allegations of antisemitism on the part of the farmers, a good inclusion since this bit gets short shrift in the doc. All of this is good stuff and worth the watch.
An Interview with Scott Hamilton Kennedy with critic David Poland – Kennedy talks about letting the film speak for itself and how he became a documentarian. (14:32)
Film Festival Q&As – Two Q&A’s are represented, with Kennedy, Daryl Hannah and several of the farmers at the Los Angeles Film Festival in 2008 and Kennedy, co-editor Alex Blatt and farmer Rufina Juarez at the City of Angels Film Festival in 2009. (19:09)
The Garden is great documentary for the same reason that so much reality programming these days isn’t great – this is a film with the guts to look at everyone with the same amount of trust and skepticism. It’s an amazing thing to see.
Oscilloscope Laboratories presentsThe Garden. Directed by: Scott Hamilton Kennedy. Edited by Alex Blatt, Tyson Fitzgerald, Scott Hamilton Kennedy. Running time: 80 min. Rating: NR. Released on DVD: August 18, 2009. Available at Amazon.com
