Ruby Jean’s Garden
As Chris puts the final touches on his children’s book about his grandmother Ruby Jean and her fictitious community garden, an unexpected opportunity arises to turn the mythical ending into reality.
The concept trailer for Ruby Jean’s Garden.
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RUBY JEAN’S GARDEN
At a glance
Project scope: 60-75 minute documentary film and impact campaign
Target premiere date: Nov 2025
Fundraising goal: $220,000
This project is currently in production.
Synopsis: Ruby Jean’s Garden
As Chris Goode, Kansas City native and community leader, puts the final touches on his children’s book about his grandmother Ruby Jean and her fictitious community garden, an unexpected opportunity arises to turn the mythical ending into reality when a plot of land just down the street from where Ruby Jean had helped raise him becomes available.
As with most of Chris’ pursuits in life, he sees this as a particularly divine opportunity to reclaim a part of his past and to write a different reality for a part of the city historically plagued by disinvestment and lack of access to fresh, healthy food. On this empty plot of land at 29th & Wabash, he sets out to improve the material conditions of the neighborhood his grandmother called home.
One major obstacle stands in Chris’ way however: he has no experience no operating a community garden or growing a damn thing. “My gardening skills terrify me,” he says, “because they are non-existent.” Thankfully, a Master Gardener named Phillip agrees to help. Together, Chris and Phillip take on the development of Ruby Jean’s Garden.
Guarded and hyper vigilant, Phillip (a retired combat veteran) finds peace in the garden. Or, we should say, the gardens, because he’s integrated into many urban growing sites on the East side of Kansas City.
Unlike developers and definitions placed by city ordinances, Phillip does not see plots of land like this as “vacant”, but rather, as a place with history, both long and recent. The land has memory and significant meaning to those who have grown up next to it like himself.
The land remembers segregation and liberation and incarceration and a time before colonization. And it’s more recent memory — one that Chris must decide to face — is of a person who came to 29th & Wabash with a promise to feed the community with the food that he would produce on the plot.
Neighbors around the plot remember that popular project well, primarily because it all fell apart. For the new garden to be successful, the duo has to figure out how to regain the neighborhood’s trust and make good on their promise to provide free, fresh food to the community.
Along the way, we hear from some of the people who have shaped Chris and Phillip. We will learn about the contemporary urban growing scene in Kansas City, paying homage to its origins and sorting through the food legacy it has left us.
Ruby Jean’s Garden is about more than the construction of a community garden. It’s a story about mythology and identity, of restoration and reclamation, and of the expectations placed on Chris and Phillip when they try to give back to the places they’re from.
Project stages and timeline
The current stage(s) in bold type.
Pre-production: Nov 2023 - Apr 2024
Production: Feb 2024 - Nov 2025
Post-production: Sep 2025 - Dec 2025
Premiere: Nov 2025
Distribution: Jan 2026+
Project inception & background
This film project began innocently enough.
Chris and Jay were neighbors when Jay lived in KC. On a walk one day in late 2023, Chris shared an update on his children’s book. He’d been working on this book about his grandmother Ruby Jean for a while.
“How does the book end?” asked Jay.
In the book, a kind nurse convinces Ruby to shift her diet from soul food to something else, and the results are so impressive that Ruby decides to create a community garden to grow healthy food, right there on Wabash.
In reality outside of the children’s book, Ruby Jean never made it out of the hospital. She didn’t survive the complications brought by her diabetes nor did she ever start a community garden.
But this didn’t seem to complicate things for Chris.
Because in Chris’s mind and heart, Ruby did make it out of the hospital, she did recover from her diabetes, and she did begin that garden on Wabash. It’s just that now, she was doing these things through him.
Ruby Jean’s Garden is in many ways a look at the usefulness of mythology.
Yes, Chris and Phillip are simply constructing a community garden. But they’re actually engaging in a serious act of reclamation. Reclamation of a memory, reclamation of a reality, and reclamation of a healthy future.
An illustration sample to be featured in the film.
Artistic approach
Ruby Jean’s Garden will be a feature-length documentary film with a total runtime of 60-75 minutes that will include the following creative elements:
Observational documentary filmmaking
Classic documentary interview setups
Animated sequences by the same artist that illustrated Chris’s children’s book
Full custom musical score
Narrative voiceover
Premiere
Ruby Jean’s Garden is tentatively set to premiere with a hometown audience in Kansas City, MO, in November 2025 in conjunction with a fundraising event at the garden.
Distribution & intended social impact
The premiere and distribution plan will be made in partnership with Ruby Jean’s Foundation which will oversee the daily operations of the community garden.
Official distribution of the film will begin in 2026. We intend to submit the film to a small handful of festivals for 3-6 months, then ultimately package it for digital distribution on reputable streaming platforms.
The most apparent impact of this film will be to promote the garden and its programs. The creators hope the film will be used by the organization to gather support for daily operations. Beyond that, the creators intend for this film to be used as a compelling way for Black urban growers to start conversations at the municipal, state and federal policy level.
Budget & fundraising
The film’s producers are currently seeking to raise a total of $201,000 for this project. To learn more about how to contribute to this project, please contact Jay here.
Characters & creators of Ruby Jean’s Garden
Rocky, Phillip Ramsey, and Chris Goode at the future site of Ruby Jean’s Garden.
Main characters
Chris Goode
A father, husband, respected business owner, and trusted community leader in Kansas City, MO. Chris begins projects before knowing where they might lead.
Throughout the film, Chris attempts to juggle many things at once. Sometimes he’s able to keep it all in the air, but sometimes he’s not.
This new garden is not his only project. He’s the founder and CEO of a prestigious juicery,Ruby Jean’s Juicery, and he is active in entrepreneurial circles stretching across Missouri. He’s involved with several non-profit organizations in addition to his own Ruby Jean’s Foundation, including Operation Breakthrough, which now operates the school Chris attended as a child. Chris is also a frequent guest speaker at schools and universities in Kansas City.
Phillip Ramsey
A combat veteran, neighborhood cornerstone, and Master Gardener. Phillip operates observantly behind the urban growing scene in Kansas City, MO.
Phillip is introduced in the film the way he introduces himself in everyday life: methodically and a bit mysteriously. The more the project comes along, the more we understand who Phillip is behind his initial presentation.
After retiring from the military, Phillip came back home to the historic Santa Fe Neighborhood. Many of the other Black urban growers were surprised at first to see someone his age as involved as he was. Many growers were in their sunset years, having worked their whole lives and, now that they’re retired, finally helped cultivate small gardens.
Phillip too, was retired, but not exactly like them. His military retirement benefits provided stability, and his childhood home became his.
Now, Phillip has time. Time to cultivate today, and time to think about what cultivation could look like tomorrow. He may have less experience than the older growers, but his passion for sharing his knowledge to a younger generation breathes a needed energy into the educational space. Philip recognizes that his position comes with certain privileges and, if he accepts them, responsibilities to the future.
Other notable characters
Ruby Jean
Chris’s grandmother and inspiration for the garden.
Dr. Barbara K. Johnson
A Master Gardener, leader of Urban Green Dreams, and one of Phillip’s mentors.
Key creatives
Cody Boston
Co-director, Co-producer, DoP, & Editor
Cody’s an award-winning documentary filmmaker based in Kansas City, MO.
Ketu Ikediuba
Illustrator & Animator
Ketu is an illustrator, animator, and musician based in Los Angeles, CA.
Brian Kennedy
Composer
Brian is a muti-Grammy Award winning producer and composer splitting time between Kansas City, MO, and LA.
Jay W. Austin
Co-director, Co-producer, & Writer
I’m a documentarian currently creating out of Atlanta, Georgia.
A note from Jay
I love this project. Chris and Phillip are inspirational people with contrasting styles and complementing motivations.
What was clear from the beginning of this project was that, sure, they might face obstacles building the garden, but construction wouldn’t be the main challenge. The primary challenge would be more spiritual and psychological.
Journeys of restoration and reclamation are just that way.
Thanks to all the people who have supported this project already. If you would like to know how you can contribute to the project, please contact me here.