The box for The Garden compares the Oscar-nominated documentary to
The Wire, David Simon’s (fictional) street-level look at the tiny moral
compromises, bureaucratic limitations and subtle corruption that can
influence civic politics. It’s a fair comparison—Simon’s
semi-fictionalized Baltimore is a place where the right decisions and
actions aren’t necessarily the most politically feasible ones; as The
Garden demonstrates, so is real-life Los Angeles. Director Scott
Hamilton Kennedy skillfully shares the unbelievable story of how,
despite the best efforts of Danny Glover and Willie Nelson, America’s
largest urban farm—-a 14-acre stretch of greenery in South Central
LA—was done in by a sneaky backroom deal, some half-assed soccer
fields and stubbornness.
This article appears in Oct 29 – Nov 4, 2009.