Watch Meryl Joseph’s City Farmers (31 min. documentary)
City Farmers… “A horror, a war zone, you couldn’t walk on the sidewalk..”
Filmed by award winning documentary film maker Meryl Joseph, City Farmers documents the community gardening movement in New York City in the 1990’s where determined inner-city residents overcame the threat of drug wars, murder, and decay to create gardens that have become symbolic metaphors of survival. The gardeners narrate compelling stories of their experiences and personal visions about struggles in both life and the gardens.
“A horror, a war zone, you couldn’t walk on the sidewalk – all the furniture, the refrigerators, stoves, the meat, rotten meat, the vegetables – the stink, the bees, the flies, the worms – it was gross.” (Gladys Gonzales, East New York, Brooklyn)
Since 1978, more than 15,000 people in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Harlem and the Lower East side have transformed 1,000 abandoned lots into garden oases. In the most devastated areas of the boroughs, mixed ethnic community groups have created an inspiring grass-roots campaign that now resonates on a global level.
“When they saw us ladies chopping trees and everything, they said, “That lady’s crazy, she must be crazy” and I said, “No, I’m gonna clean this lot!” (Antonia Diaz, Bronx)
With the support of GreenThumb a unique alliance was formed between the government and the people. Community groups were able to obtain leases for land and had access to free seeds, garden supplies, lumber, and educational workshops. Today more than one million dollars in produce is grown annually, much of which is graciously donated to senior citizens, the homeless and needy families.
Meryl Joseph City Farmers looks into the heart of diverse communities where New York’s urban farmers are powerful role models for inner-city residents everywhere. Like their seedlings, defying the broken landscape with an intrepid will to survive, urban farmers search for dignified and graceful solutions to revitalizing their neighborhoods.