|
|
With A Crop Of Cameras, A Patch Of Green Blossoms
By Seth Kugel, The New York Times
August 1, 2004
Though you wouldn't know it from his rural drawl, William Harris, 82, has lived in New York City since 1939, when he came north from Bracey, Va., for a job his uncle got him at the Wellington Hotel. He also never lost his knack for cultivating the earth to yield its bounty: the community garden he started 20 years ago in a vacant lot in Sugar Hill is bursting with tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, basil and thyme.
"I'm a country boy just like I was when I came here," he said. "I never got into the New York thing."
His garden, at 153rd Street and St. Nicholas Avenue, is the subject of an unusual documentary being shot this weekend. The project, financed by the New York Foundation for the Arts, has become a crash course in filmmaking for the neighborhood. Last weekend, a dozen people learned how to hold cameras; this weekend they are shooting on site and editing, and next Sunday, their 15-minute film will be the headliner at a community barbecue. Although the filmmakers, Alessandra Zeka and Holen Kahn, will be supervising, they are letting the participants do most of the work. "The basic idea is to let them do their own project," Ms. Zeka said, "to let them feeling excited and inspired."
This film is also a little out of the ordinary for Ms. Zeka, who lives on the Lower East Side, and Ms. Kahn, who lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn: they are currently editing a documentary on eunuchs that Ms. Zeka filmed over 18 months in India.
Ernest Miller, a 50-year-old disabled veteran, has volunteered a few times in the garden and jumped at the chance to work on the video project. "I was born and raised in South Carolina, so gardening is in me a little bit," he said. He used a video camera for the first time and will be back this weekend, pressing people on their experiences in the garden. "We're going to be a little more hungry in our interviews," he said. "A little more investigative."
The community spirit the novice filmmakers will try to capture was highlighted one recent Christmas. When someone tried to steal the garden's Santa sleigh, neighbors in the next building spotted the thief, and a neighbor used his Rottweiler to keep the thief at bay until the police came.
Talking about the film, Mr. Harris, though ever dignified, got a childish spark in his eye when asked about his literal 15 minutes of fame. "I'm not camera shy," he said.
|
|
