BATTLE for BROOKLYN

Battle for Brooklyn: Upcoming Screening in Denver

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

May 17, 7pm - Denver, Colorado
DocNight at the Denver FilmCenter/Colfax

Watch the Battle for Brooklyn Trailer

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

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.

Paper of Record?

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 17:02:00 -0400

About a month ago we screened our film “Battle for Brooklyn” in Bellingham Washington. After the film I mentioned to people that they could support the film by writing reviews on the NY Times readers review section. At that point we had 12 powerfully positive reviews and a five star rating (based on 84 votes). A couple of days later I checked to see if anyone had written a review. There was a new review, but the site now said that the film had 29 ratings and a 1 star. Obviously something was wrong.

I contacted a friend at the NY Times to see if he could help. He got the run around for a few days, but was finally told that it was a data issue. Apparently, when they ported the data from one place to another it went cockeyed. At this point I wrote to the film editor, who had been contacted by my friend about the problem. I asked, if they couldn’t fix the data right away, that they make a note on the page to let people know that the data was inaccurate. I was told it was “out of their hands.” Apparently its a “product development” issue.

I understand that data problems happen. However, once the data is published, it becomes an editorial problem. In the age of crowd sourced information, where does responsibility for erroneous information lie? Everyone who has ever commented on a NY Times story, or blog post, knows that the comments are moderated. Sometimes it takes quite some time for comments (or reviews) to appear. Clearly the Times is concerned with making sure that all comments or reviews are held to certain standards.

After three weeks of waiting for the problem to be fixed, I finally contacted the public editor. I was told that they would look into it. That was one week ago. I am sending this note to the public editor with a very sincere question, “If the data on the Times’s website is wrong, and the Times knows that it is wrong, does the Times have an editorial responsibility to acknowledge this editorially. The Times knows the data is wrong, and has known for a month. If it has been wrong for a month what kind of correction/acknowledgement is needed? What is the proper protocol in this situation?”

It would be less of a problem if the film wasn’t playing 5 times in NYC this week. Frankly, I’m not holding my breath.

{to be clear- we don’t believe this is a conspiracy based around our film- there are many other films that have also been negatively affected by this problem- which makes it even more urgent that the Times pay attention to this problem}

Here is the clearly wrong listing for Page One- about the NY Times

UPDATE: Monday Nov 7- still no change- noticed that all of the earlier reviews lost their ratings- which probably means they have a rating of zero- which is why it now reads 1.5 - still no word from the public editor.

Wednesday, Nov 16 AND Nov 21 at 7pm: Battle for Brooklyn at Brooklyn Heights Cinema

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 23:45:00 -0400

Battle for Brooklyn is back on the big screen at the Brooklyn Heights Cinema on Wednesday, Nov 9, at 7pm.

Brooklyn Heights Cinema is at 70 Henry Street.

Story of Occupy Wall Street protestors runs parallel to 'Battle for Brooklyn' documentary

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 14:29:00 -0400

Story of Occupy Wall Street protestors runs parallel to 'Battle for Brooklyn' documentary:

By Michael O’Keeffe. NY Daily News

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.

Public assets, according to the film, were given away to the wealthy and connected. Eminent domain was used, and abused, to benefit corporate interests. Fawning elected officials — Bloomberg, Schumer, Markowitz, take your pick — parroted the developer’s dubious claims of jobs and affordable housing. Millions of dollars in subsidies were provided for a project that bypassed local review. Competing proposals, which may have been more beneficial to taxpayers and the surrounding community, were ignored or dismissed…

Continue reading

"Battle" In Seattle from October 7th - 13th

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 13:39:09 -0400

Seattle’s Northwest Film Forum cinema, as part of its “Remaking the Metropolis” mini-festival, is screening Battle for Brooklyn nightly from October 7th to 13th.

Tickets, showtimes and more information.

> Seattle Times review:
Some wins, some losses in ‘Battle for Brooklyn’
(3 of 4 Stars)
“…Hawley and Galinsky, a longtime wife-and-husband documentary team, bring real suspense to the story, culled from many hundreds of hours of footage. Both opposing sides talk about “the soul of Brooklyn”; what’s also clear, from this movie, is a powerful sense of finding home.”

> Seattle’s The Stranger review:
Battle for Brooklyn presents a complex struggle between those at the top, those in the middle, and those at the bottom. Those at the top (Jay-Z, developers, the mayor) want to transform a section of Brooklyn into a profit-making machine. Those in the middle (mostly white) do not want to be displaced by this development. And those at the bottom (mostly black) have been bought by those at the top to politically promote the displacement of those in the middle. The documentary is fair and engaging from beginning to end. “

Michael Galinsky and Daniel Goldstein on Stossel

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 23:40:00 -0400

Michael Galinsky and Daniel Goldstein on Stossel:

Michael Galinsky and Daniel Goldstein discuss eminent domain and “Battle for Brooklyn” on John Stossel’s Fox Business News program. CLICK TO WATCH.

Why we Battle

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 18:51:00 -0400

The media times are changing. Early on in discussing “Occupy Wall Street,” the media echo chamber repeated the idea that the protesters didn’t have real demands, implying that they were therefore irrelevant. It was the wrong note to hit because the people weren’t buying it. For the most part the comments section on the NY Times (as an example) was fast and furious in expressing outrage at the articles’ tone. The people are no longer buying what the media is selling on this issue.

The thinking, up to now, has been that everything needs to be about organization, fund raising, and clear messaging. “The movement has failed,” the media declared, ignoring the fact the the movement had different goals. However, the message that is coming from the movement is that THE PEOPLE are fed up with these false structures.

went down to wall street to see what was going on

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 23:27:40 -0400

went down to wall street to see what was going on

Bread and Circuses

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 13:44:00 -0400

I stayed up late last night looking at footage from the occupy wall street protest. For the most part it’s pretty mild stuff. There are very few truncheons swinging. Yet the tone of dismissal and power is overwhelming. There’s a palpable anger among the officers even as the protesters remain non-violent. What’s even more disturbing is that the white shirts (the supervisors) are responsible for the most egregious acts of violence in both the mace video and the one of the orange shirted café worker who is trying to figure out what’s going on.

For the most part the protests have gone un-reported (up until the violence of this weekend). Slowly the media started to pick up on some of the more violent police actions. In reference to uncut footage of a supervisor macing 3 calm women, a police spokesperson claimed that the footage was “doctored”. It’s uncut footage. The supervisor walks up and sprays mace in their faces and walks away. The footage is clear. I take particular offense at these charges because as filmmakers we take great pains to be even handed, yet we get accused of creating “propaganda”. When those who are inside the tent, and used to controlling the message, are confronted with a counter narrative they often get very angry.

Today I went down to a tent on the plaza of the Atlantic Center mall to see Jay Z make a “surprise” announcement that he will do 8 shows at the arena and that the team will be called the Brooklyn Nets. It was a total bread and circus moment. While there are hundreds of people protesting on Wall Street there were hundreds of press people at this press event dutifully reporting the dominant narrative that they were led to. When I pointed this out to press people they didn’t see the irony.

When I first arrived (at the wrong location) I saw Marty Markowitz talking to an ABC news reporter.

I offered Marty a copy of the film. He refused to take it and told me that it was propaganda. I explained that I made the film and asked if he had seen it. “No, but I have had plenty of people tell me that it’s propaganda.” I told him that I took offense at that notion as I had taken great pains to make it even handed. I asked him again if he was sure that he didn’t want a copy. He did not. I didn’t film this exchange because I had no ill intent. I sincerely wanted him to have a chance to view the film. I offered one to the reporter as I had filmed him at the ground breaking. He didn’t want one either. Then Marty yelled at me that they didn’t have to take one. (UPDATE: As I thought about this later I thought it was pretty hypocritical of Mr. Markowitz to accuse me of being a propagandist while organizing a propaganda event)

I would be lying if I didn’t say that the exchange kicked up my adrenalin. However, I stayed calm and walked away. After Marty left I told the reporter that I really wasn’t trying to be aggressive or rude. He was pleasant and said, “I’m just here to cover this event.” I again offered him a DVD explaining that he was in the film and that he had interviewed Dan at the groundbreaking. He still didn’t want it. I told him that I thought it was important to consider the context of an event like today. He again told me that he can’t remember much of what he covers and he’s only here to do his job. This kind of response always bothers me, but it’s particularly painful today as this bread and circus event was taking place while the occupy wall street movement was being dismissed by these same people. It was this attitude that led to terrible coverage of the Atlantic Yards project as it was being pushed through the system. If reporters don’t even care about the context of the event they are cover how is the public supposed to get context?

I went down to the event partly to witness it, but I also wanted to use our film as a counterweight to the narrative that was being put forth this day. My associate Laurika Harris Kaye was with me holding a poster for the film and handing out information to reporters. Many were curious. They wanted to know what I thought about the new name for the team. I tried to explain that I was there to point out that this question plays into the narrative that the developer wants to lead. I’m not interested in the name, or the star power of Jay-Z (though he does have a certain magnetic presence).

After the event Laurika and I spoke to a WNYC reporter and I tried to make the connection between this event and the fact that the protest goes under-reported. I said, “This is a magic trick to make people look the other way from the fact that all of the promises made to the community have been ignored. There are almost no jobs, there’s no housing, and it’s all ‘look over here at this superstar’.”

I elaborated about the connection between this event and what is taking place on wall street. He wasn’t having any of it. Everyone tells me that I’m crazy for making a connection. However, if the press is distracted by a superstar then they are part of the problem. My friends who do work in media have expressed anger at my position that the press has done a terrible job covering the wall street situation. I understand where they are coming from in one sense. However, when you are inside the tent it’s always hard to get a sense of what it’s like to be on the outside looking in.

As an un-accredited press person (i.e I don’t have a press badge), myself and others who cover this situation are pushed to the sidelines. Norman Oder, of the Atlantic Yards report has been let into the circle of power however and he posted this report.

Speaking of being outside the tent. After the event Marty Markowitz was asked by a Brooklyn Eagle reporter about the fact that none of the local politicians that represent the area were in the tent. He was referring to Council Person Tish James, NY State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, and others. Marty answered that he was a politician and he understand his profession and he understands them. In other words, he didn’t want to comment on the fact that those people who directly represent the people of the community around the project are still against it.

The event today was all about leading and controlling the narrative. This process can only work if the press is complicit. The press is complicit. Try googling Barclays and Jay-Z to see how many articles pop up. Bread and Circuses while Rome burns.