Battle for Brooklyn
John Tuturro, Gilly Youner, Councilmember Letitia James, Daniel Goldstein. Photo: Tracy Collins
We at The BK Buzz attended a screening of the new documentary Battle for Brooklyn last night at the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture in Park Slope as part of the Rooftop Films series, “Films for the Occupation.” The film documents the Atlantic Yards project from the time it was announced in 2003 up through the groundbreaking last year. It focuses primarily on the fight that those living within the footprint of the project fought to try to stop the use of eminent domain to take their homes and, in particular, on activist Daniel Goldstein, who was one of the last to be evicted from his home.
The film is an intimate and rigorous investigation into the seven-year long fight between a neighborhood and one of the largest real estate developers in the country, Forest City Ratner. And with all the buzz it’s generating, it’s no surprise that the film has been shortlisted in the Documentary Feature category for the 2012 Academy Awards. So check out the trailer below and if you like what you see, the people behind the film have set up a Kickstarter campaign to raise money in order to distribute the film to a larger audience.
