Most big-budget political thrillers place their scenarios right at the top rungs of power -- the federal government. It’s flashy, it’s high-powered and it’s where most of us envision large stakes political shenanigans taking place.

The Garden takes the sensibility of a political thriller and plops it right down in the middle of a local brouhaha, where shady city council dealings prove to be just as interesting as their big brother counterparts. And, it’s a true story.

Nominated for the best documentary Oscar in 2008, The Garden had the misfortune of going up against the sublime Man on Wire. Otherwise, I could see this fascinating and engrossing doc taking home the top prize.

Filmmaker Scott Hamilton Kennedy tells the story of the largest urban garden in the United States -- a 14-acre plot of land in the middle of South Central Los Angeles. The garden was created shortly after the Rodney King riots, and for years was tended by working-class Hispanic families who would eat some of the produce and sell some of it.

In 2004, the owner of the land presented the gardeners with an eviction notice. He had originally planned to use the site for a trash incinerator, which never came to fruition, and he declared the land wasn’t being used for its intended purpose.

At this point in the film, the situation looks unfortunate, but inevitable. The 300-plus families who tended their individual gardens didn’t own land and this guy did. What are you going to do?

But soon the story gets plunged into a whirlwind of backroom dealings, self-serving politicians, and “community organizers” who hardly seem to have their communities’ best interests in mind. Apparently, the city had taken over ownership of the land, but didn’t use it for the purpose Ralph Horowitz, the owner, had in mind initially. When the city sold the land back to Horowitz, it did so in a questionably legal way.

Article Author: Dusty Somers

Dusty Somers hails from Seattle, and is a journalism student at the University of Oklahoma. He enjoys spending time and watching films with his wife, and looks forward to their imminent return to the great Northwest.

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