The Green Side of the Fence: Urban Gardening in Boston

As the seasons for gardening start to go full swing, and since we’re all home for a while and wondering what to do with our time maybe now, I thought I would talk about one my more ambitions projects: The Green Side of the Fence: Urban Garden in Boston. This project is a short documentary I made in 2012 with Kristina Finn while I was still in graduate school. In this 12 minute documentary we explore the rich history of urban gardening in Boston and discuss the importance urban gardening has played in the history of the city.

Developed and produced over the course of a summer as part of my grad school program this project was created using a myriad of different skills and equipment. To start out with we, my production partner and I, spent a lot of time working on and refining our idea. This was critical because we knew even though our story might shift a little as we went our initial idea would affect how our production would evolve. This was SO much harder to do than I thought it would be but it really was essential for how our project was going to evolve and the tone of the story. We really used our entire network of contacts to connect with our subjects and find locations to film. The video, audio and photography and editing were also things that we learned both on the fly and had some previous knowledge in. So while in some respects we were able to pool our knowledge with some things with other things, like editing software, we really had to get some additional help and refer to training videos and do a lot of self education. The same went for our graphics which I created in Adobe Illustrator. All our editing was done with Adobe software, and we shot with two different Canon DSLR’s and used a camera mounted Rode mic for our main audio as well as an additional handheld mic for additional ambient sound and as a backup.

There was a massive learning curve to this entire project. We had to learn so much on the fly and kind of lean into our collective ability to “figure shit out” in order to get hit done. I learned SO many things working on this project not just on the production end, but also about working on a production as part of small group. Perhaps most importantly however was learning how important gardening has been to Boston historically, and how that has translated over time to a growing appreciating for Boston’s green spaces, both new and old, as well as a renewed interest in making the city “greener.” Working on this project I was deeply impressed by how passionate people are about gardening and how connected to social change and reform it has been, for so many people it isn’t just about beautification but it’s an act of solidarity within their communities.

Please take a minute to check out our documentary short and happy gardening!