Leave it to the Dutch to fund a documentary that Americans across the country should watch. I don't know if or when this film will arrive stateside, but I was lucky to catch it at the Austin Film Festival, where it won the prize for best documentary.
In a nutshell, GROWN IN DETROIT is about urban farming in, well, Detroit, where there are a lot of unused and vacant lots, high unemployment and poverty. Specifically, the film is about a program for teenage moms that not only provides day care/education for their kids, but also teaches the girls agricultural skills - with the hope that they will both feed the city and their families, and make some money doing it.
The school, one of only two in the US that has a similar program, is called Catherine Ferguson Academy. It's pretty amazing stuff (though might fall under the category of common sense...). The directors, a young Dutch couple, were at the screening I attended, and unfortunately it seems that the school has lost funding and had to fire half their staff last year. This will obviously affect the quality of the program. But on the bright side, the number of gardens in Detroit is mushrooming - from 300 to 800 in a little over a year.
Catch this documentary if you have the chance. The sight of an urban environment, usually so far from nature, being transformed not only into a green place, but one that can sustain food (and bees! the bees love it in Detroit!) makes you feel hope where it might seem none is possible.
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