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The Garden review
:. Director: Scott Hamilton Kennedy
:. Genre: Documentary
:. Running Time: 1:35
:. Year: 2008
:. Country: USA
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The Garden is an intense study of how community activism and suspicious backdoor city politics clashed in Los Angeles, culminating in the destruction of the nation's largest urban community garden in June 2005 that was situated in South Central Los Angeles.
In the media, the battle was basically presented as a sort of race war between a powerful developer and immigrant farmers led by a group of activists. The City's colossal failure was never fully analyzed nor was the fact that the South Central Farmers were not a united front — there were issues between leadership and farmers who felt compelled or obligated to follow rules or face eviction. Director Scott Hamilton Kennedy unpeels the many complicated layers of the story and takes it a step further to tell the most complete saga of the garden.
The nation's largest community urban garden began in 1992 when land was temporarily lent to a food bank after it was acquired through eminent domain, after plans to build a garbage incinerator were scrapped following community upheaval. The farm flourished. A series of mysterious backroom deals led to the City selling the land back to developer Ralph Horowitz in 2003, who sued the city for breach of contract. Horowitz then advised that farmers would be evicted in 2004. Community activists rallied around the cause of the farmers and a lot of work and effort was put into saving the farm, including a lawsuit filed by farmers against the city for an illegal sale.
And this was just the beginning of a series of complications. Horowitz, who received the land at roughly $5 million, was now asking for $16 million to sell the land to the farmers. As activists tried to raise money to save the farm, from onsite concerts featuring Zack de la Rocha and Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine), other celebrities and politicians such as Darryl Hannah (Blade Runner) and Antonio Villaraigosa moved to keep the area a public garden. The farmers were successful in raising the money — the Annenberg Foundation offered to meet Horowitz's asking price. However, he backed out of negotiations and more or less stated in the media that no price would be high enough — land would not be sold to squatters.
Kennedy's film follows the farmers and South Central Farm leadership as they work with lawyers and battle city officials, navigating their way through landmine after landmine to save their farm — it's plenty of politics in a short amount of time. Attention is also paid to farmers who felt betrayed by the leadership of Rufina Juarez and Temezoc as well as farmers who were expelled from their plots by leadership.
Despite the muddy politics, the most heartbreaking images are the destruction of the farm. From what began as an urban garbage heap converted into plots of land harvesting fruits and vegetables — watching it, and the possibilities of self-sustainability on a micro-level, be razed to the ground is horrendous. Years of work is destroyed in a matter of hours.
The Gardenis the most complete portrait of a shameful period in Los Angeles history that sheds light on economic and racial disparities as well as the activism of an immigrant community finding its voice.
Anji Milanovic
 Documentary Reviews: 1998 - 2011
Documentary Reviews: 2012 - present
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