''The Garden'' is a 2008 American

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

directed by Scott Hamilton Kennedy. It tells the story of the now demolished

South Central Farm The South Central Farm, also known as the South Central Community Garden, was an urban farm and community garden located at East 41st and South Alameda Streets, in an industrial area of South Los Angeles, California, (known as South Central ...

; a community garden and

urban farm Urban agriculture, urban farming, or urban gardening is the practice of cultivating, processing, and distributing food in or around urban areas. It encompasses a complex and diverse mix of food production activities, including fisheries and fo ...

located in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. ''The Garden'' details the plight of the South Central Farmers, a mostly Latin community of farmers who organized and worked on the farm. After a suspected back room deal, the land upon which the farm operated was sold from the city back to the original owner, Ralph Horowitz. He then decided he did not want to allow the farmers to use it anymore. Despite efforts to keep their farm, the South Central Farmers were evicted and their garden was bulldozed. The film was nominated for an

Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosoph ...

on 22 January 2008. ''The Garden'' includes appearances by Danny Glover,

Daryl Hannah Daryl Christine Hannah (born December 3, 1960) is an American actress and environmental activist. She made her screen debut in Brian De Palma's supernatural horror film '' The Fury'' (1978). She has starred in various movies across the years, i ...

, and

Antonio Villaraigosa Antonio Ramón Villaraigosa (; né Villar Jr.; born January 23, 1953) is an American politician who served as the 41st Mayor of Los Angeles from 2005 to 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Villaraigosa was a national co-chairman of Hillar ...

Reception

Critical response

''The Garden'' has an approval rating of 79% on

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website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on 24 reviews, and an average rating of 6.95/10.

Awards

''The Garden'' was nominated for Best Documentary Feature in the

81st Academy Awards The 81st Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2008 and took place on February 22, 2009, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 ...

. The International Documentary Association nominated it for the Pare Lorentz Award. It won the Grand Jury Award from the 2008

Silverdocs Documentary Festival The AFI Docs (formerly Silverdocs) documentary film festival is an American international film festival created by the American Film Institute and the Discovery Channel. It is held every year in Silver Spring, Maryland and Washington, D.C. Star ...

References

External links

Official site
* * * American documentary films 2008 independent films Documentary films about agriculture in the United States American independent films 2008 films 2008 documentary films 1992 riots Documentary films about Los Angeles Urban agriculture 2000s English-language films 2000s American films {{environment-documentary-film-stub