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Growing it here, growing it now

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Staff

By Brooke Parker
Staff Writer
“We can’t afford to lose collective knowledge,” said Daniel Smith, director and producer of Growing it Here, Growing it Now, of his latest documentary about real food and the gardeners making it grow in two Carrboro community gardens.

The genuine community and sharing of knowledge that is taking place at the two gardens – the Carrboro Community Garden and the neighboring Growing Healthy Kids Garden sponsored by Orange County Partnership for Young Children – inspired the documentary. Both gardens are located in Martin Luther King Jr. Park, at 1120 Hillsborough Road.

Smith filmed the documentary earlier this year in an attempt to show how such an informal community at the gardens is so productive. The documentary depicts gardeners of all ages participating, sharing stories and talking about how they contribute to the gardens.

“People have to get their hands dirty,” Smith said, noting that the gardens continue to be a large investment of labor, and that he is impressed with the gardens’ incredible productivity.

“It’s very productive and very informal,” he said. At the Carrboro Community Garden, for instance, there are no guidelines; members simply work on whatever needs to be done. The gardens are not just a place for work, but also a place for learning, Smith added.

“It’s rich, what is going on here,” Smith said. His documentary intends to “show what is involved, and the fact that it is something that can be done, and done now.”

“I’m hopeful it will encourage prospective gardeners,” he added.

Smith grew up on a farm in Iowa and found a piece of home at the Carrboro Community Garden when he moved to Chapel Hill in 2007.

Using the equipment available from and facilities at The Peoples Channel, Smith shot film, interviewed gardeners and edited all of the material for the documentary.

“It’s a one-person production, basically,” he said, adding that the documentary is his first serious attempt at filming, and that he’s satisfied with the outcome.

“I’m a visual artist and a writer, so it wasn’t a leap to do this kind of work,” he said.

Though the resources available through The Peoples Channel helped him pull it off, the production was all Smith.

“I pushed the recording sound at the same time as shooting the film,” he said.

And his work hasn’t gone unnoticed. Growing it Here, Growing it Now was selected for the fifth-annual Ava Gardener Independent Film Festival, which ran Oct. 6-9 in Smithfield.

Although Smith is in the planning stages of another documentary, he said he’s not entirely sure what he will be tackling next.

Growing it Here, Growing it Now is a Common Curator production available on DVD for $10. Email commoncurator@gmail.com for details.

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