Home Grown Film Night

Home Grown film night will be showcasing short films based on existing community garden projects coordinated by Grand Union in Birmingham and by the Foleshill Community Centre in Coventry.

Both projects aim to provide new spaces of possibilities for people that have experienced exclusion, homelessness, or financial hardship and who are usually excluded from or do not have access to those spaces. The films will show that community gardening can be a radical act, allowing communities involved to gain access to fresh and healthy food, make their city more beautiful, protect their environment, improve their mental and physical wellbeing.

A bit more info on each of the projects...

Grand Union: Growing Project What happens when a Birmingham arts organisation, a homeless charity and local organisations come together to clean up a disused space for a community garden for people experiencing homelessness?

Filmed in Birmingham during Spring 2021, over 4 different locations, the film captures the real life stories, dreams and achievements of the people involved in the project, from participants, artists, gardeners and volunteers to the organisations underpinning the work. The garden becomes a place of shared stories, plant growing, food making, and also sanctuary, recovery and meaningful production.

Foleshill Community Garden: Cultivating Wellbeing The film captures the story of the Foleshill Community Centre Foodbank and Social Supermarket and its community garden. Participants gather at least once a week to do various activities in the garden, learn to grow vegetables from seeds to harvest and cook a meal to be shared at the end of the session. The project started in the midst of the first lockdown and considerably improved mental wellbeing of its participants by allowing them to have a safe, green space to gather.