Succulent tomatoes, sweet basil and peppers, dark, rich earth, and bees flitting amidst multicolor flowers lure the city’s gardeners, but it is their voices and stories that beckoned a curious filmmaker.

“It’s a very enriching experience to meet people and hear their stories,” Chevy Chase resident Cintia Cabib said. "You're always getting an education — always learning new things."

Fifteen years ago a seed was planted and by 2007 Cabib’s idea took root. She began visiting community gardens in Washington, D.C., and learned that people in the inner city turn to these gardens not only for their fruits and vegetables, but also as a place of healing.

“A Community of Gardeners,” Cabib’s one-hour documentary, is a eloquent ode to gardens and their ability to alter perceptions about our communities, the environment and ourselves. The film, which premieres at the Environmental Film Festival in D.C. on March 24, has already received an enthusiastic response, Cabib said.

“I wanted to make it personal, to make it engaging for people — show these gardens through the gardeners themselves.”

The documentary features seven community gardens, including the C. Melvin Sharpe Health School garden, a handicapped-accessible garden for students with special needs; the 7th Street Garden and its rebirth as Common Good City Farm, a communal garden serving low-income D.C. residents and the surrounding neighborhood; and the Washington Youth Garden, where families adopt a garden plot and healthy eating habits.

The history of community gardens provides an historical context for gardens today, Cabib said. The film traces the movement from it’s start in Detroit in the 1890s to Depression-era gardens, the World War II Victory gardens, and finally to the gardens created by economic revitalization and environmental awareness in the 1970s.

A graduate of Winston Churchill High School and Goucher College, Cabib’s family emigrated from Argentina in 1967 when she was 6 years old. She said that her parents gave her an appreciation of American folk music, food and cooking. Her fluency in Spanish served her well during the filming; she said that she was able to conduct some of her interviews in Spanish, as many immigrants from Latin America are community gardeners.

Cabib noted the assistance of her team: John Z. Wetmore, of Bethesda, on camera and sound; composer Adam A. Johnson, of Arlington, Va.; and her sister Leila Cabib, who did the title animation.

Although it took her three years to complete the documentary, Cabib said that she loved the entire process from conception to production, and then seeing the project come to fruition.

“I’m really looking forward to showing it to an audience.”

"A Community of Gardeners" will premiere at the Environmental Film Festival at 7 p.m. March 24 at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. It will be screened at the Town Hall Education Arts Recreation Campus (THEARC) in Anacostia at 4 p.m. March 25.