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.
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.