BATTLE for BROOKLYN

Nov. 9 & 15: San Francisco Doc Fest Screens Battle for Brooklyn

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 11:52:00 -0400

Battle for Brooklyn will screen in the San Francisco Documentary Festival on November 9th and 15th at 9:30pm at The Roxie.

More information and purchase tickets here.

Purchase Battle for Brooklyn DVD. iTunes and Amazon Downloads Come in January

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 17:56:00 -0400

Battle for Brooklyn will be available for download on iTunes and on Amazon in January.

Universities and other educational institutions CLICK HERE to purchase the DVD.

Oct 20: Battle for Brooklyn Makes TV Premiere on DirectTV

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 19:32:00 -0400

Update November 2: Now available On Demand on DirectTV

The Something to Talk About series kicks off this weekend with the premiere of Battle for Brooklyn, Saturday October 20 at 9pm on DirectTVAUDIENCE Network. Check out the schedule for additional airtimes.

9/28 8pm Screening is on for Outdoors at Dean Street Playground

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 09:59:00 -0400

8pm film screening of Battle for Brooklyn is on, free and outdoors at the Dean Street Playground. Dean Street between 6th Avenue and Carlton Avenue.

MAP

We’ll see you there.

Atlantic Yards – It’s A Crime! Events on September 26, 27, 28, 29

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 00:07:00 -0400

Brooklyn Was Promised Much More Than An Arena
As Barclays Center Opens, Series of Events Highlights
Failures of Atlantic Yards and Demands for Change

What: It’s A Crime! Events to Coincide with Barclays Center Opening, (details below)

Who: Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, Families United for Racial and Economic Equality, Brown Community Development Corporation, BrooklynSpeaks, Fifth Avenue Committee, Brooklyn for Peace, Park Defense Fund Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, Park Slope Neighbors, East Pacific Block Association, Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus, South Portland Block Association, Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council, Fort Greene for Peace, Brooklyn Clergy, Elected Officials, Rumur Inc, Tracy Collins and more.

> WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 7PM
Battle for Brooklyn screening at The Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture
53 Prospect Park West, Brooklyn [Directions]

> THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 7PM
Candlelight Vigil
Join Brooklyn clergy, elected officials and community organizations for a vigil remembering the people and families displaced by the Atlantic Yards project’s use of eminent domain, as well as recognizing those at risk of displacement today. We plan to gather close to the arena entrance at Pacific Bears Community Garden, corner of Flatbush and Pacific. Please follow this link for more information on the exact meeting location.

> FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 (arena opening day)
11AM: Press conference @ Barclays Center, in front of the Pacific Bears Community Garden, opposite the arena, at triangle tip where Flatbush and Pacific meet (details to follow).

12PM - 4PM: Popup actions all around the Barclays Center

5PM: Virtual rally—tweet #BarclaysCenter and @AYCrimeScene for housing and jobs now.

6PM: OWSGuitarmy’s Teach-in in Response to Jay-Z Comments

8PM: Free outdoor screening of Battle For Brooklyn (battleforbrooklyn.com)
@ Dean Playground Ball Field, just half a block from the arena
(Dean St. between 6th Ave. and Carlton Ave. MAP)
PLEASE NOTE: Should it rain for the Friday, September 28th, 8pm outdoor screening of Battle for Brooklyn the indoor venue is:
669 Atlantic Avenue, Corner of Atlantic and South Portland. [Map]

> SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 4PM
Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE) March for Housing, Jobs and Justice
This march to Barclays Center concludes FUREE’s 10th Annual Convention @ 80 Willoughby St. 12PM-4PM. March starts at corner of Bridge St. and Willoughby St Join FUREE and local residents for a march through communities under attack from greedy developers and their friends in government.

6-8 PM: Photographer Tracy Collins’ exhibit, ATLANTIC YARDS: DECONSTRUCTED, opening reception at the Soapbox Gallery (636 Dean Street, 1.5 blocks from the arena site, MAP). The exhibit traces the “on the ground” impacts of the development over the past 9 years through photography, video and other media.

More info at AYCrimeScene.com

As Jay Z Opens the Barclays Center, The Critically-Acclaimed Counter-narrative to the Barclays Hype, “Battle for Brooklyn,” Screens for Free Half a Block Away

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 16:03:00 -0400

“‘Battle for Brooklyn’ is a riveting flick that shows how real estate developers use sports to seize other people’s property and enrich themselves with taxpayer subsidies; it is about how corporate interests enlist their allies in government to get what they want, even if that means lying to the public and screwing people who lack deep pockets and political connections.”
Michael O’Keeffe, New York Daily News

BROOKLYN, NY — At the 2010 groundbreaking ceremony for the Barclays Center, just one portion of the massive Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, Mayor Bloomberg intoned, “No one’s going remember how long it took. They’re only gonna look and see that it was done.”

Battle for Brooklyn will ensure that, despite the Mayor’s wishful thinking, people won’t forget.

On Sept 28^th at 8pm, the Barclays Center opens its doors for the first time for a Jay Z concert. Simultaneously Battle for Brooklyn—the riveting counter-narrative to the intense, multi-million dollar PR campaign developer Forest City Ratner is using to tell a story they and their political supporters want the public and media to believe about their billion dollar arena and all the broken promises they would like to hide—will screen just steps away from the arena.

The critically-acclaimed feature film Battle for Brooklyn—the true story behind the eight-year fight over the Atlantic Yards project—will be screened for free at the ball field at Dean Street Playground just one half block from the arena.

“Our film closely explores the contentious community fight to stop the Atlantic Yards project, and the promises made by the developer and his supporters in New York State and City government. The community’s efforts to have a meaningful say in its future, in the face of top down development and crony capitalism, is a universal story being played out all across the US,” said director Mike Galinsky.

“The developer and the project’s proponents would like this history to disappear down the memory hole. Battle for Brooklyn, this screening and others timed around the arena’s opening plug that hole.”

Battle for Brooklyn was short-listed for a 2011 Oscar for Best Documentary, won Best Documentary and Best Film at the 2011 Brooklyn Film Festival and was chosen as a 2012 American Library Association Notable Film.

Details:
Free, outdoor screening of Battle for Brooklyn

WHEN: Friday, September 28. 8pm

WHERE: Dean Street Playground Ball Field

(Dean Street between 6th Avenue and Carlton Avenue) [ Map ]

Subways: 2/3 Bergen Street stop, N/D/B Pacific Street Stop, C Lafayette Avenue Stop

Rain Location, Indoors: 669 Atlantic Avenue (Corner of S. Portland Ave. cattycorner to the arena) [ Map ]

Battle for Brooklyn, The True Story of How the Soon-to-Open Barclays Center Arena Came to Be, To Screen Across the Nation and in All Five Boroughs

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 21:45:00 -0400

“…Battle for Brooklyn is at its best showing how Atlantic Yards used the pretense of democracy to enrich the powerful, but how it also energized actual citizens to fight the good fight…”
— Chris Smith, New York magazine

“If you’re a New Yorker, it’s a mesmerizing story and for the most part Battle For Brooklyn, provides an engrossing history lesson on this controversial project.”
— Neil Rosen, NY1

“Battle for Brooklyn is…a movie for our times.”
— Barbara Vancheri, Pittsburgh Post Gazette

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — At the 2010 groundbreaking ceremony for the Barclays Center, just one portion of the massive Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, Mayor Bloomberg intoned, “No one’s going remember how long it took. They’re only gonna look and see that it was done.”

Battle for Brooklyn will ensure that, despite the Mayor’s wishful thinking, people won’t forget.

Amidst the growing hoopla and hype of the Brooklyn Barclays Center September 28^th opening, Jay-Z concerts and the Brooklyn Nets arrival on the scene, the other story of the eight year fight and controversy that swirled around the arena and the rest of the Atlantic Yards project, the critically-acclaimed, award-winning feature film, Battle for Brooklyn, will premiere at select theaters across the nation and screen in each of New York’s five boroughs (see schedule and link to watch trailer below).

“Our film closely explores the contentious community fight to stop the Atlantic Yards project, and the promises made by the developer and his supporters in New York State and City government. The community’s efforts to have a meaningful say in its future, in the face of top down development and crony capitalism, is a universal story being played out all across the US,” said director Mike Galinsky. “The puffy articles and hoopla are a magician’s trick of misdirection to make the people look away from everything that’s wrong with how this project came to be.”

“The developer and the project’s proponents would like this history to disappear down the memory hole. Battle for Brooklyn and these screenings timed around the arena’s opening plug that hole.”

Battle for Brooklyn was short-listed for a 2011 Oscar for Best Documentary, won Best Documentary and Best Film at the 2011 Brooklyn Film Festival and was chosen as a 2012 American Library Association Notable Film.

———————————-

Battle for Brooklyn is an intensely intimate look at the very public and passionate fight waged by owners and residents facing eminent domain condemnation of their property to make way for the controversial Atlantic Yards project, a massive plan to build 16 skyscrapers and a basketball arena for the New Jersey Nets in the heart of Brooklyn. Shot over seven years and compiled from almost 500 hours of footage, Battle for Brooklyn is an epic tale of how far people will go to fight for what they believe in. This character-driven, vérité film addresses the broader social, economic, and political ramifications of the project through interactions with individuals from all sides of the issue. Featuring filmed speeches by Michael Bloomberg, Architect Frank Gehry, Jay Z, Developer Bruce Ratner, Steve Buscemi, activist Daniel Goldstein and others, Battle for Brooklyn is a riveting primer on the Atlantic Yards project, eminent domain and on grassroots activism that will inspire people to look deeper into the stories that affect their lives.

New York City Dates:

Wednesday, September 19 — Brooklyn
Park Slope’s Old First Brooklyn Church - presented by the Fifth Ave Committee

Tuesday, Sept 25, 9pm — Brooklyn
Indiescreen, Brooklyn

Tuesday, Sept 25 — Staten Island
ETG cafe on Staten Island

Wednesday, Sept 26 — Brooklyn
Brooklyn Ethical Culture Society as part of Brooklyn Reconstructed

Thursday, Sept 27 — Manhattan
Maysles Cinema in Harlem

Bronx and Queens screenings TBA

Nationwide Dates:

Chicago, September 24, 7pm at Facets

Fort Lauderdale, September 24, 7pm at Cinema Paradiso

Washington, D.C., September 25 at West End Cinema

Seattle, September 25 at the Northwest Film Forum

Bellingham, WA, October 1 at Pickford Film Center

Dallas, October 1 at Studio Movie Grille

Nationwide screenings of the film will include a recently filmed Q & A with the filmmakers and the film’s protagonist and a discussion after the film with the audience.

Watch the Battle for Brooklyn trailer.

Filmwax series: Brooklyn Reconstructed. More info here.

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 00:31:00 -0400

Filmwax series: Brooklyn Reconstructed. More info here.

June 15th: Battle for Brooklyn on Australian Public TV

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:14:00 -0500

Battle will air on Australia Broadcasting Channel, public TV, on July 15th:

ABC2 | Sunday, 15 July 2012 at 8.30pm

About the series

Sunday nights on ABC2 is the home of Sunday Best, an outstanding collection of game-changing and thought-provoking feature length documentaries. We’ve done the work to bring you the best must-see intelligent docos that are just too good to miss. Hosted by Kristy Best.

Battle For Brooklyn

Battle for Brooklyn follows the story of reluctant activist Daniel Goldstein as he struggles to save his home and community from being demolished to make way for the densest real estate development in US history.

Watch the Battle for Brooklyn Trailer

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:41:00 -0500

Watch the Battle for Brooklyn Trailer

Tim Sika, President of the San Francisco Film Critics Circle,...

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:00:00 -0500

Tim Sika, President of the San Francisco Film Critics Circle, and host of San Jose public radio’s (KSJS) “Celluloid Dreams” program interviewed Battle for Brooklyn director Michael Galinsky. The interview was broadcast on January 16 and runs just over 24 minutes. In the wide-ranging interview Michael and Tim discuss the origins and making of the film, the relevance of the film to the Occupy movement, local (San Jose and Santa Clara) stadium battles, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” the meaning of Daniel Goldstein’s resistance to Atlantic Yards and beyond, and more.
(Interview is also here, starting at 2:10, ending at 26:36.)

"In some ways “Battle For Brooklyn” resembles Frank Capra’s “It’s A..."

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:59:00 -0500

“In some ways “Battle For Brooklyn” resembles Frank Capra’s “It’s A Wonderful Life” but even more so his “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington” in its look at a relentless couple who fearlessly keeps fighting City Hall and its powerful allies at the expense of a social life and time to breathe, as the couple awakens a community and galvanizes a fight against a corporate and government structure that puts political roadblocks and legal linguistic contrivances in front of the resident taxpayers at every turn.”

- — Omar Moore, SF Indie Movie Examiner

Filmmaker Michael Galinsky and activist Daniel Goldstein talk private property, holding out, and standing ovations.

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:45:17 -0500

Killer Movie Reviews via PRX. by Andrea Chase
Filmmaker Michael Galinsky used the synchronicity that brought him together with Daniel Goldstein when making BATTLE FOR BROOKLYN, the story of how a private developer invoked Eminent Domain to seize private property, including Goldstein’s. The resulting film has been shortlisted for an Oscar, and at the screening I attended in San Francisco, brought an audience to its feet. When I spoke with them, the conversation covered what it was like for Goldstein to be trapped in an elevator after everyone else had moved out, how a developer can circumvent local authorities, and how the Occupy Movement has helped get the film booked around the country.

» Listen to the Interview

'Battle for Brooklyn' Debuts At Artisphere

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:07:42 -0500

A documentary exploring eminent domain abuse in Brooklyn, N.Y., debuts at Artisphere’s Dome Theater.
Patch.com. By Brooks Hays

Some critics may claim “Battle for Brooklyn” is a slanted or biased film, but those who do will have ignored a beautiful piece of cinema and a powerful piece of journalism…

“Battle for Brooklyn,” which debuted at the Artisphere in Rosslyn on Friday and plays through the weekend, documents the epic journey of a handful of activists fighting to save their community and property from seizure by eminent domain in Brooklyn, N.Y.

In the documentary, hundreds of Brooklyn residents and their community face the threat of wrecking balls, bulldozers and the ambitious plans of real estate developer Bruce Ratner.

Ratner and his company Forest City’s $2.5 billion Atlantic Yards project is set to bring the New Jersey Nets to the borrough of Brooklyn, along with several massive residential towers and a mess of mixed-use buildings.

To accomplish this, Ratner wages an impeccable but ethically questionable PR campaign and — thanks to political favoritism and an array of dubious tactics — is able to comdemn an entire neighborhood, execute a hefty landgrab by way of eminent domain, and receive a sweetheart deal from the Mass Transit Authority as well as hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer kickbacks and subsidies.

Although now a shell of its former self, the real estate mogul’s aggressive vision for redevelopment ultimately wins out. And Atlantic Yards’ construction remains active today.

While this story was never going to be an upset victory of Hollywood proportions, its narrative is both informative and uplifting — a testament to the power of family, human dignity and soul in the face of injustice and corporate interest.

There’s no question as to where filmakers Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley place their emotional chips. They pledge their sympathies with the activists from the beginning, chief among them Daniel Goldstein, one of the most ardent and dedicated opposers of the project. Goldstein quickly becomes the heart and soul of the film.

An early clip of Goldstein cements his status as affable underdog and forthcoming citizen.

“I’m not much of a patriot, but it is un-American,” Goldstein says of Ratner’s state-sponsored land grab. “Or maybe it is American,” he adds. “You know what? It is American. What [Ratner is] doing seems to be the American way.”

The soliloquy gets easy laughs in the theater.

The choice to follow the struggle from Goldstein’s perspective was an easy one, filmmaker Hawley said. “Dan was a fighter,” she said, “and he wasn’t going to stop until the end.”

While the film’s loyalty lies with Goldstein, this is unarguably an objective look at eminent domain abuse and its real-life effects on a community. The facts are not manipulated.

Corporate influence, politcal power brokering, as well as precisely purchased positive PR spin and community support are all levied by Ratner to skirt the democratic process and to avoid having any real dialogue with the community and their objections to his plans.

But “Battle for Brooklyn” is not only about eminent domain abuse and crony capitalism but also the failure of mainstream media. Throughout the film, it’s clear that Forest City/Ratner press releases routinely win out to any fair journalistic depiction of the struggle.

“It’s as much about media as it is about anything else,” Galinsky said. “Many New Yorkers who’ve seen the film told us they felt like they slept through this whole ordeal.” That’s because very few outlets were willing to tell this story in real time.

Hopefully, this film changes the historical narrative of Atlantic Yards, and injects a bit of accountability back into the media coverage of Ratner’s ongoing project.

At least in Arlington, new light has been shed on it and eyes have been opened. The film received a warm reception from theatergoers at Artisphere’s Dome Theater on Friday.

Stephenie Popp and Charlotte Ashford left the film feeling frustrated but fulfilled. Popp, whose mother took on a role similar to Goldstein’s in a 1950s eminent domain case in Los Angeles, feels especially connected to the film.

“I found it very interesting and compelling, especially after hearing similar stories from my mom,” Popp said.

Her theater companion was equally impressed, but felt infuriated by the injustice she witnessed. “It was especially hard to watch when you know it’s not going to turn out well in the end,” Ashford said.

While the film can be blood boiling, it is ultimately a redemptive tale — and certainly one worthy of patronage.

Galinsky explains it best, likening the film’s arc to the ultimate clarity that George Bailey finds at the end of James Stewart’s ”It’s a Wonderful Life.”

“It pulls the idea and the value of community and family together and places it over top the idea of simply chasing money,” Galinsky said.

Battle for Brooklyn will screen at 6 p.m. today at Artisphere’s Dome Theater. The screening will be followed by a question-and-answer session with the directors, as well as a special guest appearance from protagonist Daniel Goldstein.

“The Tragedy of Urban Renewal” by director Jim Epstein will precede each screening.

'Battle for Brooklyn': It's not just a New York story

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:04:00 -0500

TBD Washington, DC. By Andrew Beaujon.
(Screens in DC at Artisphere, Jan 13-15)

Battle for Brooklyn is a documentary film about the Atlantic Yards project, which attempted to parachute a new neighborhood, including a basketball arena, into downtown Brooklyn. The only problem? There was already a neighborhood there.

So why should we care about it here? You can’t swing a Twitter client in Washington without hitting some nimrod who’ll tell you New York’s got better food, better coffee, and a better arts scene. Now we have to hear about how much more cinematic their civic problems are than ours?

But: the city of Alexandria has floated the idea of using eminent domain to get its waterfront-redevelopment plan going. Maryland considered using eminent domain to keep the Preakness in Baltimore. And the District recently argued that it could strong-arm tenants out of the Skyland shopping mall whether or not the plan to replace them was viable.

Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley’s film begins with a press conference in 2003 where the famous architect Frank Gehry enthuses about the possibility to “build a whole neighborhood practically from scratch,” demonstrating a hubristic tenor that carries through the movie, as the developer Forest City Ratner steamrolls community opposition groups, city government, the courts, and not least the New York press.

Hawley says this film, which deals with eminent domain abuse, is really a critique of media. Every piece about the project, she says, “followed the same format: You quote the developer, and it was five paragraphs about what the developer was going to do, and then they’d interview Dan for one line.”

“Dan” is Daniel Goldstein, a graphic designer who quickly becomes the heart of the film. His apartment on Pacific Street was in Forest City Ratner’s cross-hairs.

“I’m not much of a patriot, but it is un-American,” Goldstein says at the beginning of the film. “Or maybe it is American. You know what? It is American. What [Ratner is] doing seems to be the American way.”

“I knew when he said that that this guy was not going anywhere,” Galinsky says. He and Hawley live in Clinton Hill, close to the proposed project, and had seen a flier opposing it. Patti Hagan answered the phone number on the flier and suggested Goldstein as an interview subject.

As the film covers the next seven years, Goldstein’s engagement crumbles, his hair turns gray, and he becomes the only tenant in his building. He meets, marries, and has a daughter with another protester, Shabnam Merchant. And he becomes very good at talking to the media.

“You see him throughout the film discovering the talents he didn’t know he had,” says Hawley.

“He obsessed about” the project, Galinsky says of Goldstein. “For him it’s an intellectual puzzle and a conundrum.”

Adding to the weirdness: The parade of celebrities who get involved as the controversy drags on, both pro (Jay-Z and Beyoncé) and con (Steve Buscemi, John Turturro, Rosie Perez). And just when you think the story can’t get more surreal, George Will shows up in Goldstein’s apartment.

The good guys lose, of course. But now Goldstein’s a full-time activist with a family, a rather nice payout from Forest City Ratner, and a house near his old one. “This film scholar in Italy said it’s like a Frank Capra film except the hero loses,” Galinsky says. “I said it’s exactly like a Frank Capra film. At the end, he is profoundly whole.”

Battle for Brooklyn has been shortlisted for an Academy Award, but Hawley and Galinsky are financing the film’s tour themselves. They haven’t had much luck getting it into film festivals, though they say they did great business at Cinema Village in New York, where the film ran for three weeks. They’ve been working on theaters around the country, trying to show their movie. “Almost every place we were able to do it was, frankly, old music connections,” says Galinsky (see disclosure, below). “It goes back to human relationships. Not so much business relationships but art relationships.”

Hawley and Galinsky both feel the Occupy movement represents a major upgrade to how issues like Atlantic Yards get hashed out, and that they’ve since become much more interested in how their city works themselves. “We didn’t know what a community board was,” Hawley says. “Our whole way of how we see things is just different. Seeing how things work has just opened our eyes.”

Battle for Brooklyn shows at Artisphere on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday; tickets are $7 and Hawley, Galinsky, and Goldstein will do Q&As at each showing.

DISCLOSURE: Many years ago, a band I played with shared many bills and punk-house floors with Galinsky’s old band Sleepyhead.

San Francisco Bay Guardian Review of Battle for Brooklyn

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:01:00 -0500

Battle for Brooklyn (at the Roxie Jan 13 and 19 at 7 & 9pm)

Posed as neither a left nor a right issue (though George Will does drift into view at one improbable moment), Michael Galinsky’s powerful documentary does the exhaustive, long-haul work of charting the fight between residents and business owners in Brooklyn’s Prospect Heights as they oppose the condemnation of their property — oh-so-inconveniently in the way of the proposed Atlantic Yards, a mammoth Frank Gehry-designed development involving a basketball arena for the New Jersey Nets and more than a dozen skyscrapers. The scrappy residents and activists, led in part by graphic designer Daniel Goldstein, face seemingly unbeatable forces: developer Forest City Ratner, which looks to Eminent Domain to seize a community’s land, whether it likes it or not; a complicit and corrupt state and city government; and other members of a diverse, divided community who are clamoring for the jobs that Ratner’s PR machine promises. Galinsky imparts the impact of the project — and its devastating effects on the neighborhood, despite alternate proposals and the recent real estate bust — over the course of eight years, with hundreds of hours of footage, time-lapse images, and a fortunate focus on one every-guy hero: Goldstein, who loses a fiancé and finds love at the ramparts, while his home is shorn away, all around him. Along the way, the viewer gets an education on the infuriating ways that these sorts of boondoggles get pushed through all opposition — the corollaries between this struggle and, say, the building of the 49ers stadium in Santa Clara are there for the viewer to draw. (1:33) Roxie. (Chun)

Battle for Brooklyn Trailer - Embed & Share

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:48:00 -0500

Battle for Brooklyn Trailer - Embed & Share

BATTLE FOR BROOKLYN, the Story of One Neighborhood's Battle to Fight Big Business from Taking Their Homes, Captures the Attention of Critics and Audiences in the Heat of the Occupy Wall Street Movement

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 23:42:00 -0500

Screening at the Maysles Center in Harlem and
Brooklyn Heights Cinema in December

”…The pundits who continue to say they don’t understand what the protesters behind Occupy Wall Street want should look at Battle for Brooklyn, the award-winning documentary about the Atlantic Yards that was released this summer. The film was released before the Wall Street protests began, but the story it tells is a strong summary of the crony capitalism that sparked the OWS movement.”
— Michael O’Keeffe, New York Daily News

Brooklyn, NY, November 21, 2011 – Battle for Brooklyn, co-directed by Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky and produced by David Beilinson, is a documentary about the struggle of one man, Daniel Goldstein, and his community to save their homes from from being demolished to make way for a new basketball arena as part of the largest development plan in New York City history, currently under construction in downtown Brooklyn, NY.

This intimate, rigorous and infuriating investigation of the seven-year long fight between a small neighborhood in Brooklyn and one of the largest real estate developers in the country captures the cultural zeitgeist that has people revolting against big banks in the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Brooklyn filmmakers Hawley and Galinsky present an epic and universal tale of one man under pressure, and how far he will go to save his community and his home from private developers and their allies in government who want to build a basketball arena on top of it. Along the way, he loses a fiancée, falls in love again, gets married, and starts a family. Shot over the course of eight years and compiled from almost 500 hours of footage, Battle for Brooklyn is an intimate look at the very public and passionate fight waged by one Brooklyn community to save their neighborhood from destruction and exploitation by industry giants.

Upcoming screenings:
Maysles Center, 343 Lenox Ave., between 127 & 128 streets, New York, NY
Dec 1, 7:30pm: Q&A with filmmakers
Dec 6, 7:30pm: Q&A with Mindy Fullilove and local community
Dec 9, 7:30pm: Q&A with Dan Goldstein

Brooklyn Heights, 70 Henry Street, Brooklyn, NY
Nov 23, 6:00pm
Nov 30, 6:00pm

Indie Screen, 285 Kent Ave at S. 2 Street, Williamsburg Brooklyn
Nov 27, 5:00pm

National and Local Critical Recognition for Battle for Brooklyn

“Battle for Brooklyn” is…a movie for our times.
— Barbara Vancheri, Pittsburgh Post Gazette

“A thoroughly engaging look at the infuriating erosion of individual rights in the interest of corporate concerns and political maneuvering.”
— Basil Tsiokos, Indiewire

“And for all the catcalling and flaring tempers, the claims and counterclaims of flyers, conferences, church meetings, and press releases, the film captures a valiant effort to take back ‘the American way’ and make it what it should be. Whatever side you’re on, whatever the outcome when the project is finally complete, it’s inspiring to see Americans put a lie to the suggestion that they are apathetic, self-obsessed, greedy, fat, and stupid. Watching Battle for Brooklyn, my only wish was that I could say the same thing about the politicians who run the place.”
— Anne Thompson, Thompson on Hollywood

“The movie…has heart, soul and chutzpah…Feisty but fairly reported…The time line that drives ‘Battle for Brooklyn’ makes it as urgent as any Hollywood thriller.”
— Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News

NY Times Critics’ Pick
— Neil Genzlinger, New York Times

“The movie proves a deft look at a reluctant crusader and how financial sway and political override can so effectively trump the power of the average citizen.”
— Gary Goldstein, The Los Angeles Times

“…The Empire State’s eminent domain laws are unusually loose, but most of the rest of this story is pertinent far beyond New York. Change a few names and add the next credit bubble, and a Brooklyn-style Battle could be headed to a neighborhood near you.”
— Mark Jenkins, NPR

“‘Battle for Brooklyn’’ is a riveting flick that shows how real estate developers use sports to seize other people’s property and enrich themselves with taxpayer subsidies; it is about how corporate interests enlist their allies in government to get what they want, even if that means lying to the public and screwing people who lack deep pockets and political connections.”
— Michael O’Keeffe, New York Daily News

“…Battle for Brooklyn is at its best showing how Atlantic Yards used the pretense of democracy to enrich the powerful, but how it also energized actual citizens to fight the good fight…”
— Chris Smith, New York Magazine

“The film’s basic situation — local residents and community activists vs. the development schemes of major politicians and big business — is an archetypal element of urban life, one that can be found in almost any city, large or small, from Maine to California. What distinguished kazillionaire developer Bruce Ratner’s plan to remake the center of “America’s fourth-largest city” (to borrow the boosterish phrase of Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz) was primarily its size and audacity, along with the fact that the ensuing battle turned very ugly and inevitably attracted the attention of the national media, much of which is headquartered a few miles away across the East River.”
— Andrew O’Hehir, Salon

“Nothing depicts the borough’s backbone with more personality and urgency than ‘Battle for Brooklyn,’ the [Brookyn Film Festival’s] opening-night selection…Seven years of footage is edited into a crisp, dramatic and narrator-free 93 minutes, focusing on the remarkable story of neighborhood activist Daniel Goldstein, the last resident in a Pacific Street building marked for demolition through eminent domain.”
— Steve Dollar, Wall Street Journal

“…Perhaps the most insightful film about urban planning and eminent domain to yet emerge, it is also a muckraking portrait of system corruption, of the ways that money causes undue influence within our political system and how the wealthy can muscle their preferred message through the media in increasingly draconian and anti-democratic ways.”
— Brandon Harris, Filmmaker Magazine

“A powerful movie about an important and little-reflected-upon topic, “Battle For Brooklyn” is a telling snapshot of political maneuvering, and the tossed-around wrecking-ball weight of corporate might as it relates to individual rights. Americans would be wise to heed movies like this one, when politicians talk about corporations being people or citizens, they’re certainly not referring to equal-footing status.”
— Brent Simon (President of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association), Shockya.com

“Having observed much of the story in real time, I found Battle most valuable in the camera’s witness to the palpable insincerity and cold-blooded indifference of the developer-government alliance. Though Atlantic Yards may not directly evoke the Robert Moses era, when massive numbers of people in New York City were displaced by large public projects, the film shows that the powers today are less blatant but still relentless.”
— Norman Oder, Dissent

“The documentary is more valuable for its cold-eyed look at how real estate interests work the levers of power in state and city government, dangling the vague promise of job creation in exchange for sweetheart deals that drain the public coffers.”
— J.R. Jones,

Chicago Reader

Chapel Hill native Michael Galinsky's documentary about Brooklyn, basketball and corporate power

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 11:44:00 -0500

Chapel Hill native Michael Galinsky's documentary about Brooklyn, basketball and corporate power:

by Marc Maximov, Chapel Hill’s IndyWeek.com

Battle for Brooklyn screens at 6pm, Tuesday, November 22nd at the Varsity Theater in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Councilmember Letitia James calls a press conference: Seven...

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:12:00 -0500

Councilmember Letitia James calls a press conference:
Seven construction workers, including former outspoken supporters of Atlantic Yards, promised union cards and construction jobs on Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project announce filing of lawsuit in federal court against the developer, the community group funded by him—Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development (BUILD)—and others. (Full, unedited press conference.)

Click for comprehensive details about the lawsuit and press conference from Atlantic Yards Report.