If you’d like to know more about the South Central Urban Farm controversy as featured in the Academy Award nominated The Garden, you should give World Wide Motion Pictures Corporation’s Welcome To Eden a viewing. Documenting the events from the viewpoints of Willie Nelson, Joan Baez, and Daryl Hannah, the latter of whom was arrested during the eviction in solidarity with immigrant farmers, the film captures the raw emotion that surrounded the scene in the time leading up to the farm’s end.
The story of South Central Urban Farm is complicated and in many ways dependent on perspective. While The Garden depicts the events from the point-of-view of the three interests involved in the drama – the urban farmers, the original land-rights owner Ralph Horowitz, and The City of Los Angeles, Welcome To Eden specifically showcases the battle through the eyes of the farmer activists and their celebrity allies. Unfortunately, in 2006, the farmers lost the battle to Horowitz and the land was bulldozed. Today, after stalled talks between Horowitz and both Wal-Mart and Forever 21, the lot remains vacant.
