The Garden
Dir: Scott Hamilton Kennedy
Rating: 2.5
Oscilloscope Laboratories
80 Minutes
In the aftermath of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, the city was left in a horrible state. Thousands were injured, 53 were killed and damages exceeded $1 billion dollars. A garden literally grew from the ashes. The city allowed 14 acres of land in South Central LA to become the largest community garden in the United States. Since then, 372 mostly poor Latino families have taken over the daily duties of maintaining their own gardens for the production of food.
In 1986, prior to the riots, Los Angeles paid developer Ralph Horowitz $5 million for the land to build a trash incinerator before activist Juanita Tate stopped the project. In 2003 the city suddenly sold the land back to Horowitz for the original sale price, in a deal conducted in secret, with both Councilwoman Jan Perry and Tate having a hand in it. Horowitz and Perry wanted the development, and in return, Tate asked for... soccer fields.
Director Scott Hamilton Kennedy's film The Garden begins in 2002, when the future of the South Central Garden at 41st and Alameda is in jeopardy. The developer who owns the land plans to evict the farmers and build a warehouse. The film follows the farmers' ongoing struggle to gain support for their lengthy legal battles and their challenge of members of the Los Angeles City Council as they try to save what they have grown to love.
As the legal procedures begin and the poor farmers stand up to the developer as well as the City of Los Angeles, they win some legal battles but also suffer some setbacks. Certainly this fight doesn't come without its costs; as new rules are enacted within the garden, factions of farmers form between the leadership and others. Some longtime residents are simply locked out of their own plots, a tactic that is oddly reminiscent of those used by the developer.
Danny Glover, Willie Nelson, Joan Baez and Daryl Hannah all make almost forgettable appearances; while they may have played a larger role during the 2006 struggle to keep the garden, their arrival seems to be included only so that their star power could be used as a tool to promote the film. Similarly, musician Zach de la Rocha gives a performance during a fundraising concert, but its impact seems negligent. The best cameo is ironically made by a politician via Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign stop in the garden. One farmer tells another that a presidential candidate is going to arrive the next day and the other doesn't ask which one, only "that we could probably win if he was on our side."
The film's greatest flaw is that the entire conflict is only portrayed through the lens of good versus evil, while the actual story is far more complex. Some of the farmers were selling their goods, while Tate's interests might have been financially motivated. Unsurprisingly, every single politician in the film does a horrible job at following through on his or her own promises.
Is the audience supposed to take away that as long as they have the strength to fight, they will always win? Success is rare in these types of situations. Maybe cynicism got the best of me, but when it comes to a powerful and wealthy developer versus a minority in the United States, the minority doesn't seem to stand a chance. Kennedy should be applauded for spending four years following this story, but for the farmers, and likely the viewer, the conflict remains unresolved and will likely remain so indefinitely.
by Nicholas Ryan