"The Garden" Review - Written by Mathius Mack Gertz

Title: The Garden
Year: 2009
Documentary: USA
Running Time: 95 minutes
Directed by Scott Hamilton Kennedy
Writers Scott Hamilton Kennedy
Producers Julie Bergman Sender ... executive producer Dan Cogan ... supervising producer Dominique Derrenger ... co-producer Scott Hamilton Kennedy ... producer Vivianne Nacif ... co-producer Stuart Sender ... executive producer
Cast Danny Glover ... Himself Daryl Hannah ... Herself ... Himself
Original Music Doug DeAngelis Gabriel Tenorio
Cinematographers Scott Hamilton Kennedy
Editors Alex Blatt Tyson FitzGerald Scott Hamilton Kennedy
Production Managers Leilani Makuakane Potter ... post-production supervisor
Sound Department Ryan Gegenhiemer ... sound effects editor Paul Hackner ... sound re-recording mixer Paul Hackner ... supervising sound editor Kimberly Lowe Voigt ... dialogue editor Andrew Twite ... sound editor
Editorial Department Joseph K. Chen ... assistant editor Callister Christian ... on-line editor Ryan M. Fritzsche ... on-line editor Antonio Scarpitta ... assistant editor
Miscellaneous Crew Renee Good ... production assistant Robin Petgrave ... helicopter pilot
Production Companies: Black Valley Films
Official website: www.thegardenmovie.com


The 14 acre community garden in South Central Los Angeles was the largest of its kind in the United States. It was started as a form of healing after the devastating L.A. riots in 1992. Since that time, the South Central Farmers had created a miracle in one of the country's most blighted neighborhoods. Growing their own food. Feeding their families. Creating a community. But now bulldozers threaten their oasis. The Garden is an unflinching look at the struggle between these urban farmers, the City of Los Angeles, political interests, and the personal interests of a powerful developer.

First of all I have to mention that I was briefly associated with trying to help raise funding for this project. Therefore I was aware of The Garden long before now and I got to see the unfinished product; before the saga had played out to its current state of affairs, if not absolute conclusion. All that being said, I still like and applaud the result.

I am sympathetic with the story of the film and to its participants, on both sides of the issue. In many ways it is a classic clash of Socialist American and Capitalist American philosophies in the shadow of deregulation and dirty backroom politics. It is also a microcosm for the national tensions that exist between the Latino-American and African-American communities as they fight over power and politics, land and resources. Four years in the making, Scott Hamilton Kennedy’s sophomore documentary outing is an Oscar nominated and Silverdocs award winning performance that shows his talent and versatility as a documentarian. As he did in his first full length documentary, OT: Our Town, he demonstrates a natural ability to showcase small local stories in unattractive parts of the community that contain large, national and international implications.

However, in The Garden, Kennedy also shows a unique talent for using music to move the plot forward and tell a compelling story. He takes us on an emotional roller coast as we watch the successes and failures of the farmers unfold, while uncovering the ugly underbelly of politics and politicians. As the layers of hypocrisy are stripped away from Councilwomen Jan Perry, she is left exposed as self serving, power hungry and racist. A dramatic conclusion given that she is also African-American. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is shown to be a political animal devoid of personal interest in the Latino community, or any for that matter, except to the extent that he can feather his own bed and get votes.

The Garden is an important lesson that highlights the huge obstacles that stand in the way of developing a comprehensive national environmental policy. The role of individuals, governments and private enterprise in the current global warming crisis is brought into local focus. Does The Garden have anything to say about global warming? Not directly. But indirectly it is the canary in the coal mine of what we have to overcome over the next fifty years. A must see. Four stars.