The neighborhood around Portland's Cultivating Community urban garden (on Boyd Street in Bayside) might not be as notorious as the one that surrounds the South Central garden at 41st and Alameda streets in Los Angeles. But some aspects of the two gardens' missions — to bring healthy, affordable food to disadvantaged communities, and to people who might not otherwise have access to fresh vegetables — are quite similar. For that reason (and because it's a really fine piece of work), everyone should get over to SPACE Gallery next Thursday, to watch The Garden, a documentary by Scott Hamilton Kennedy that tells the powerful story about how a plot of land can symbolize bigger socio-economic struggles.
After stewarding the garden's 14 acres for years, the South Central farmers found themselves at the beginning of this decade in the middle an ownership dispute, fighting the powers-that-be — city officials and even other community activists. They fought, and ultimately (spoiler alert) failed to keep what they considered to be their land; Kennedy was there to document all the big moments. (Maine-connection bonus: Barry Dana, former chief of the Penobscot Nation, is on the board of Katahdin Productions, the California-based company behind this doc.)
SPACE is filming the movie as part of its social justice film series; tickets are $7 and the film starts at 7:30 pm on Thursday, December 18.
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Topics:
This Just In
, Space
, Penobscot Nation
