The Garden |  | Director: Scott Hamilton Kennedy
Actors: Danny Glover, Daryl Hannah, Antonio Villaraigosa
Studio: Oscilloscope Laboratories
List Price: $29.99
Buy New: $11.97
as of 11/23/2009 22:03 CST details
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New (28) Used (4) from $11.97
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Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 23348
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 80 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: OSC 010
UPC: 896602002104
EAN: 0896602002104
ASIN: B002ASVYO6
Theatrical Release Date: 2008
Release Date: August 18, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Oscar-nominated for Best Documentary in 2008 THE GARDEN has been hailed by critics as the most astute and powerful political film of the year. Filmmaker Scott Hamilton Kennedy s (award-winning director of OT: OUR TOWN) brilliantly captures, in a series of explosive and wrenching turn of events, the ways greedy developers, inept politicians and self-serving community leaders can run rough shod over |
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Product Description
Studio: Oscilloscope Pictures Release Date: 08/18/2009 Run time: 80 minutes
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 6
 Must See Documentary October 26, 2009
Cheryl R. Revkin (los angeles)
Extremely well made, relevant doc that address class, race, politics and the environment. It will make you relfect on your own actions and then take action.
 A quagmire of unmentioned issues August 23, 2009
C. M. McGarry
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
While the film itself is interesting and well done, the biggest problem I have with this film is its lie of omission. At its core, the film is about a simple property rights issue, however the director chooses not to focus on the real issues of the conflict, instead focusing on the plight of the urban poor and painting all others involved as "greedy, evil politicians and developers". Its not mentioned if the people farming the land had ever had any right to do so to begin with, regardless of whether the property was owned by the district, city, or a private entity. Perhaps they should have bothered to secure the right to use the land for agricultural purposes to begin with. But to not do so, and then claim that they have eminent domain over the land because they have put it to use is not a valid argument to seize private or public property.
If the owner of the property happened to be a better cook than any of them, could he make the case that he should seize ownership of their kitchens? If I (and three of my neighbors) can put your back yard to use better than you can, does that give me the right to claim ownership of it?
Its this issue that is not directly addressed by anyone but the owner of the property at the end of the film (complete with "evil" rock music and scenes of crying protesters and bulldozers) which is the core and cause of the situation. The farmers and the filmmaker conveniently decided to omit much discussion of the origin of or ways of property rights upon which our entire society is based. This is not to say I agree with it, but to mostly ignore it is asinine.
Mostly good film, minus the blatant and intentional appeal to emotion rather than the issue itself.
one of the best documentaries i've seen! August 20, 2009
Jennifer Stroup (Long Beach, CA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
wow wow wow. i'm an LA resident and was horrified by the injustice i saw between councilwoman jan perry and scumbag land owner ralph horwitz. jan has her hands so deep in the money bag, obliviously on the take, while horwitz is too busy being racist. amazing and so glad this was documented on film. i'm sorry i was not more involved with this movement. rent/buy this film to see what i'm talking about. worth it on all levels. at least it will get you thinking one way or another.
Good Use of Available Documents August 17, 2009
Mike In NYC
I saw this film at an IFC screening in NYC that included a Q&A with the director afterward. People who advocate of the rights of the poor to use under-used urban land almost universally love this film. I suspect the director shares their sympathies. What usually goes unnoticed as far as the story is concerned is that the city took private land through eminent domain and then failed to use the land for any of the public purposes for which land seizures are normally reserved. After the passage of several years, the city then sold the land back to the original owner at the price they'd originally paid him. On the surface, this does not seem 'unfair'. However, in the interim poor immigrants, many of whom were presumably undocumented, began to farm the land. That Hamilton failed to document whether or not these people were undocumented, whether any particular viewer feels this is germane or not, is a minor flaw in the film. Of course, their immigration status would have been a difficult topic to broach with the immigrants themselves and might have changed the filmmaker's access to the immigrant community, but it might also have served to highlight the differences between the immigrant community and the allegedly corrupt city counselors who were elected by the poor Black residents of the area. Be that as it may, Hamilton does a good job with the documents available to present the complexity of the situation, if only in passing. I spoke to Hamilton after the screening. He'd already sold the few DVDs he had with him for $20 and urged me to call or email him for a copy. I've done both, but only get an answering machine or a form email telling me the DVD is available, because of my university affiliation, for $310, even though I have no plans to use the DVD in an educational setting.
loved this doc July 9, 2009
Nick (Brooklyn)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I saw this movie at Cinema Village in NY and was so impressed by its raw, fly-on-the-wall approach. Being a New Yorker I knew nothing of the plight of these farmers in South Central LA and their attempts to take on greedy developers and city hall to save their community garden, but this story has universal appeal. An enthralling and necessary doc.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 6
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