Battle for Brooklyn

Battle for Brooklyn (2011)

An intimate look at the very public and passionate fight waged by residents and business owners of Brooklyn’s historic Prospect Heights neighborhood facing condemnation of their property to make way for the polarizing Atlantic Yards project, a massive plan to build 16 skyscrapers and a basketball arena for the New Jersey Nets.

Date of release
2011-06-17
TMDB
5.0 / 10 (3)
Runtime
1h 33m
Genres
Documentary, Drama
Director
Suki Hawley, Michael Galinsky

Interesting facts

Battle for Brooklyn is a 2011 documentary that follows the stories of a Brooklyn neighborhood as the residents fight to save their homes from being destroyed by an impending real estate project. The film attempts to show the unjust outcomes that are possible when moneyed interests partner up with government entities to outweigh the rights of citizens.

Production

The film, which was shortlisted for an Academy Award in 2012 for the 84th Academy Awards, was produced and directed by Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley. Hawley and Galinsky began production in 2003, when they came across a flyer explaining the protest. Galinsky started shooting the very same afternoon.

In a 2011 interview, Galinsky described the events that led to the start of filming:

I saw an article in the paper that said, "A development project is coming to Brooklyn. Hooray!" I thought, "This seems a little bit weird." I knew the area it was coming to. It seemed it was impossible. It's in the middle of playgrounds and neighborhoods. My daughter went to daycare a block from there.

On April 30, 2011, Battle for Brooklyn premiered in Toronto at the HotDocs Film Festival.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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