Synopsis
This film is co-sponsored by Community CROPS.

ONE WEEK ONLY! The fourteen-acre community garden at 41st and Alameda in South Central Los Angeles is the largest of its kind in the United States. Started as a form of healing after the devastating L.A. riots in 1992, the South Central Farmers have since 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 are poised to level their 14-acre oasis. The Garden follows the plight of the farmers, from the tilled soil of this urban farm to the polished marble of City Hall. Mostly immigrants from Latin America, from countries where they feared for their lives if they were to speak out, we watch them organize, fight back, and demand answers: Why was the land sold to a wealthy developer for millions less than fair-market value? Why was the transaction done in a closed-door session of the LA City Council? Why has it never been made public? And the powers-that-be have the same response: “The garden is wonderful, but there is nothing more we can do.” If everyone told you nothing more could be done, would you give up?--© Official Site



The power of Scott Hamilton Kennedy’s 2002 documentary OT: Our Town was in how Kennedy unobtrusively captured the racial tensions at Compton’s Dominguez High School, and in the ways students and faculty used art to celebrate difference, to transcend animosities. In his Oscar-nominated sophomore doc The Garden, power plays unfold along lines of backroom politics, race and poverty; nothing like the elixir of art saves the day. The film follows the years-long struggle over 14 acres of land between Latino farmers, on one hand, and L.A. city government and a powerful businessman on the other. From that David and Goliath setup, filmed in a straightforward style on a shoestring budget, emerge fascinating character studies that underscore both the best and worst of human nature. The farmers coalesce into a formidable political entity; community activists are revealed to be shady power brokers; the embattled turn on one another. What makes the film worth seeing is how Kennedy’s camera captures a complex assortment of real-life personalities and hidden motivations, which are made all the more staggering for being slowly unpeeled (although the film never drags). The Garden makes it clear that, regardless of the battle’s outcome, there is victory in the fact that the farmers fought at all.--Ernest Hardy, LA Weekly