Garden Lovers Movie Morning

The Brunswick Park and Gardens would like to invite the area business community to a free showing of "A Man Named Pearl" on Tuesday, November 18th at 7:30 AM, before your work day begins. The BP&G's mission is to create a world-class garden park on land soon to be vacated by the Brunswick Naval Air Station. The film is about a man who created a topiary garden on his 3 acre property that attracts thousands of tourists each year to the small town of Bishopville, South Carolina. The business community is invited to view the film to learn ways that BP&G's proposed project can positively affect the area as part of the redevelopment of BNAS. There will be a short introduction by the Garden Project. The film will be over before 9:00 AM. Coffee, tea and muffins will be available for sale at the box office, and the doors will be open by 7:00 AM. Admission is free. A description of the film follows: A Man Named Pearl (G)(80 min) Directed by Scott Galloway and Brent Pierson Scott Galloway and Brent Pierson's warm, big-hearted documentary opens with Pearl Fryar working on his topiary garden to the strains of Fred Story's resolutely old-school jazz score. This gives the initial impression of an elite environment, one accessible only to the few able to appreciate its rarefied pleasures. But once the man named Pearl begins to tell his tale, all that melts away. Just as jazz was once the popular music of all walks of American life, Fryar makes the case that gardening isn't solely the bastion of the wealthy. With a boundless energy that belies his age (he's now 68), this blue-collar, self-taught artist has created a three-acre topiary garden so extraordinary that its presence has put the small town of Bishopville, S.C., on the map. "Horticulture people," explains Fryar while driving his pick-up truck, "come to my garden and the first thing they say is, 'You shouldn't be able to do that.' And I would say to them, 'I didn't know that.' The one time in my life ignorance paid off." The acknowledgement that he possessed more enthusiasm than experience is punctuated by a hearty laugh that goes a long way toward explaining Fryar's accomplishments. (His wife of 40 years, Metra, shares that same easy humor and unflappable optimism.) The son of sharecroppers who passed on their work ethic and unwavering religious faith, Pearl was looking to buy his first house when the casual racism of a potential neighbor - "black people don't keep up their yards" - inspired him to transform his outdoor property into something spectacular. So began a 30-year commitment to an evergreen sanctuary where the words "Peace Love & Goodwill" welcome visitors from around the world - all in his own back yard. The ability to coax plants other gardeners have left for dead into living abstract sculpture - a live oak forms a crisp, perfect box, a Leyland cypress morphs into a massive, fishbone-topped totem ? takes patience, determination and what his friends and admirers deem Fryar's special skill: the ability to visualize future growth and act accordingly. Some biographical details that were left out of this love-fest (as a college student, Fryar participated in civil rights sit-ins, he was also a Korean War veteran and union organizer) demonstrate the tough tenacity of this soft-spoken, welcoming man. With effusive praise for Fryar's DIY aesthetic and his selfless nature, the filmmakers give a big, green thumbs up to Pearl's earthly paradise.