Filming-gardening in the neoliberal age: ambivalences in the life and work of Anne Charlotte Robertson

Abstract

‘Making my diary has literally saved my life’, wrote the Massachusetts filmmaker and gardener Anne Charlotte Robertson (1949–2012).1 Taking personal responsibility for her well-being during episodes of mental illness, Robertson gardened and filmed her garden as a form of diary. This practice culminated in her magnum opus, Five Year Diary, an autobiographical film begun in 1981 and ending far later than its title anticipated, in 1997. At over 36 hours spread across 84 Super-8 reels, the film documents 16 years of Robertson’s life, foregrounding the therapeutic and environmental benefits of organic gardening. The Diary is shot handheld, often in rapid takes, roving and cutting between house, garden, plants and vegetable preparation in the kitchen. For Robertson, being well meant being in the garden, with a camera in one hand and seeds in the other, responding to changes in light, to flowers blossoming, tomatoes ripening or compost maturing.2...