WiserEarth Area of Focus Suggestions

What: Special screening of the Academy Award nominated documentary "The
Garden", sponsored by the Public Health Institute and The California Food and Justice
Coalition, and held in conjunction with the 2009 annual conference of the
Network for a Healthy California.

Where: The Crest Theatre, 1013 K Street, Sacramento, CA.

When: Wednesday March 4, 2009, from 5:45 PM onwards.

Cost: The Screening is free, however, guests are asked to make a donation
of any size at the door.  Proceeds benefit the California Food and Justice
Coalition.

The Public Health Institute, the California Food and Justice Coalition,
and the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California are pleased to invite you to a
special free screening of the Academy Award nominated documentary "The Garden".  The
screening is being held on Wednesday March 4, 2009 from 5:45 PM onwards,
at the Crest Theater in Downtown Sacramento.  The screening is being held in
conjunction with the annual conference of the Network for a Healthy California.



The screening will be followed by a Q&A session and educational panel,
including Rufina Juarez and Tezozomoc, two of the farm leaders featured in the
documentary.


The Garden: Synopsis:

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?

The Garden has the pulse of verité with the narrative pull of fiction,
telling the story of the country's largest urban farm, backroom deals, land
developers, green politics, money, poverty, power, and racial discord. The film explores and
exposes the fault lines in American society and raises crucial and challenging
questions about liberty, equality, and justice for the poorest and most vulnerable
among us.