“Some of us from Hook & Smith Productions sent a crew to Umoja Garden, a City Parks Founation Learning Garden, in Bushwick, Brooklyn to create a documentary portrait. The crew members were myself, Dimitri Brown, Matthew Pine, Bekere Grandison, Christian Pimentel and Amanda Torres. We got footage of the many types of vegetable and plants. We also had the chance to invite a gardener nearby to interview. His name was Frank. He was as cooperative as the healthy vegetables were fresh (the vegetables were picked off the plant). Frank had described the many vegetables and flowers that are being planted, and indicated ones that were abundant, special and the best. He was 83 years old, but looked extremely young and healthy, and gave us some tips on gardening and eating healthy.
Furthermore, we had the honor to have Geimy, program director, as a tour guide. She told us about the educational programs with kids that she runs at Umoja Garden and other Learning Gardens in the city. We met her two high school interns and saw how they took care of all the plants and vegetables. It was raining off and on, and we had to go back and forth to the shelter of the subway tracks, which ran right above the garden.
When we left, Geimy gave us all a good handful of fresh veggies to take home!”
– Text by Hacon Chen
