Oscar And The Garden

by digby

I was at an L.A. bloggers event today for Tom Geoghegan (which I will write more about in a bit) and I ran into my friend and fellow Democratic activist Julie Bergman Sender. I asked how she was doing and she said great and asked me how I was doing I said fine and then we chatted for a few minutes and she just sort of casually slipped it into the conversation that her film “The Garden” had been nominated for an Academy Award!

This is incredibly great news for those of us who’ve been knocking around the netroots for some time. Julie and her husband Stuart are both long time progressive filmmakers who have been fighting the good fight forever. This documentary feature is an incredible achievement that was no doubt recognized by the Academy as being a film of the moment — it is, after all, about “community organizing.”

Here’s the synopsis from the web-site:

The fourteen-acre community garden at 41st and Alameda in South Central Los Angeles is the largest of its kind in the United States. Started as a form of healing after the devastating L.A. riots in 1992, the South Central Farmers have since created a miracle in one of the country’s most blighted neighborhoods. Growing their own food. Feeding their families. Creating a community.

But now, bulldozers are poised to level their 14-acre oasis.

The Garden follows the plight of the farmers, from the tilled soil of this urban farm to the polished marble of City Hall. Mostly immigrants from Latin America, from countries where they feared for their lives if they were to speak out, we watch them organize, fight back, and demand answers:

Why was the land sold to a wealthy developer for millions less than fair-market value? Why was the transaction done in a closed-door session of the LA City Council? Why has it never been made public?

And the powers-that-be have the same response: “The garden is wonderful, but there is nothing more we can do.”

If everyone told you nothing more could be done, would you give up?

You can see the trailer at the link. I can’t wait to see the movie.

Update: Lisa Derrick hosted the director of the film, Scott Hamilton Kennedy, on FDL Movie Night last week.

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