PBS visits Little and Lewis

Published 7:00 am Wednesday, August 16, 2006

The Bainbridge gardeners will be featured on ‘Recreating Eden.’

George Little and David Lewis have given numerous interviews about their gardens, sculptures and installations, but never one that focused on them personally and professionally.

That changed last week, when a Canadian PBS crew spent nearly five days filming them at home and about town.

Wing Point residents Little and Lewis agreed to be featured among the artists for the “Recreating Eden” series, which profiles four artists/scholars/writers worldwide each year.

“We are the only ones in the U.S. that were picked,” Lewis said. “We don’t know how they found us. Perhaps it was our book (“A Garden Gallery: The Plants, Art and Hardscape of Little and Lewis”).”

The pair said they’re honored to be selected, even though it meant being followed around 12 hours a day and being thrust into the spotlight.

“The series is less about our art and our garden than the people who create these gardens,” Lewis said. “It was quite intensive.”

Little and Lewis were interviewed separately and together.

“They’re really probing. It’s some deep stuff,” Lewis said, adding the crew members were nice, understanding and very cordial. “It was an interesting, positive experience.”

The crew came away with 20 or 40 hours of tape.

The “Recreating Eden” hosts interviewed friends of the Little and Lewis – including Debbi Brainerd and Frank and Cynthia Buxton – and trailed after them at the Saturday farmers market.

There, the crew did spontaneous interviews with passersby who offered greetings.

The gardens hosted a cocktail party one evening, and that event also was filmed.

“The last day they rented a large lift and put it in the garden. They went up about 30 feet and started filming looking down at George and me. It was really nice,” Lewis said.

The Little and Lewis segment will air sometime next spring.