Green streets

Duration: 87

Year Published: 1989

Creator: M. De Luca

Format: 16mm

Color: Color

Sound: sound

Description: Refuting the notion that the urban environment is inhospitable to organic life, this film documents a wide range of community gardens that have been established in each of New York City's five boroughs and which reflect the city's multicultural diversity. Carrying on the mission of the Urban Community Gardening Movement that sprang up informally in the 1970's, adult and young people alike have taken up spades and shovels to clear abandoned, rubble-strewn lots for flower and vegetable gardens. Cameras visit a soul food garden, a penthouse arboretum, a playground erected from old tires, a circular garden designed by a modern-day Adam and Eve, and a therapeutic rooftop retreat for recovering substance abusers. At the film's upbeat conclusion, urban tillers proudly display prizes won at the Annual Tenant Gardening Competition.