Showtimes & Tickets

A MAN NAMED PEARL
Produced & Directed by Scott Galloway & Brent Pierson
Released by Shadow Distribution
USA. 78 min. Rated G

Pearl Fryar, a sharecropper’s son, took a job in a cannery in the small, low-income town of Bishopville, South Carolina, and moved into a predominantly white neighborhood with his wife. His real estate agent was told by neighbors that a black family was not welcome. “Black people don’t keep up their yards,” said one anonymous homeowner.

This was 1976, and far from the first time Pearl had seen racism or hard times. His response to the remark was novel, delightful, and uniquely Pearl Fryar: he created one of the most beautiful topiary gardens in the United States. Though he had only once, briefly, seen a topiary demonstration at a local garden, and had no botanical training, he had an innate gift, both for the design and tending of a garden. He became the first African American to be honored by the Bishopville Garden Club. Now 68, he attracts visitors to his garden from all over the world, and has had his topiary sculptures shown in museums.

A Man Named Pearl is a candy-colored, G-rated documentary. It borders on being too sweet, too transcendent, and therefore too neat, showing Pearl’s world as too tidy and too triumphant. Although the film doesn’t show racism at its ugliest, there are hints of the darker world that Pearl has chosen to change. As a documentary, it escapes being pap for children and old ladies by showing enough of the broader context of Bishopville life to underscore just how exceptional Pearl’s total, resolute defiance of social, cultural, political, and economic barriers has been.

Pearl’s is a story of transformation. He finds and offers inspiration everywhere, and, through sheer talent and willpower, has managed to become a person of influence. The words “Love, Peace and Goodwill” are etched into the ground in the center of Pearl’s yard, and he has conducted his life according to these principles for 30 years.

Children will love this uplifting story of an all-American artist and be drawn to Pearl’s sculptures, which are more abstract and freeform than the shapes in Edward Scissorhands or the animals of George Mendonca, the topiary artist featured in Errol Morris’s Fast, Cheap & Out of Control. More jaded viewers will be blown away by Pearl’s sheer force of will. His story builds on itself throughout the film, so that somehow, through the sweetness, you leave with a sense of just how much Pearl has had to overcome. Like so many master chefs, with their knives flying at the speed of light, and like so many great artists, with their quick-fire creations, he makes it all look so deceptively easy—not just his art, but the art of life and of making peace, love, goodwill, and beauty where there was nothing lovely at all. Elizabeth Bachner
July 18, 2008