Can You Dig This By Delila Vallot

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Between upbeat and depressing the film documentary, Can You Dig This, by Delila Vallot; was an up and down wild ride showcasing the what urban gardening is doing for one community. The city of Compton in southern California is mostly filled with poverty. People struggle to keep jobs and maintain food and a roof over their head. I couldn't imagine trying to find a zen place in the midst of the troubles in this community. The film used both narrative and music analogies to make it more like a light hearted gangster story. Right from the beginning of the film, I picked up the sense that as a viewer I was on the outside looking in. This was also evident from the narrator’s viewpoint. Even though she came from this area, she was now a person who felt she didn’t belong. The fact that Vallot used plenty of narratives to make the documentary interesting. If she was just interviewing these four people within the shot, it would not have been as powerful. As an “omniscient narrator” (Gocsik, 239) Vallot is making a strong point. The point being that it’s hard for me as the viewer to understand why it’s so hard for these urban gardens to flourish in Compton. Spicey is a prime example. He doesn’t want to tell the narrator at first why he got interested in gardening; pot. Again, I was the …show more content…

I especially loved how they started out with “California Dreaming” as they drove through Compton. The lyrics helped send the message of the struggle for people to be uplifted amidst drugs, poverty, and misunderstanding. Each song from hip hop, children’s songs, to oldies. Music was the analogy for each scene it was used in. Upbeat for the times that characters were in the garden, slow and sometimes depressing background music when the filmmaker wanted to enhance the uglier side of Compton. The piano playing in the scene where Quimonie’s dad goes to the hospital made the scene even more emotionally

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