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May 23, 2011
Show me the monkey! Upcoming film treats include Brooklyn doc, return of Woody Allen, and apes
Daily News
Joe Neumaier
Atlantic Yards is nothing to look forward to, but it looks like the documentary of the fight against it is.
Early next month will see the perfect combination of movie and event, and not just because of a title. The opening-night selection of "Battle for Brooklyn" at the Brooklyn Film Festival — screening June 3 at the Brooklyn Heights Cinema (and opening at Cinema Village on June 17) — will be a form-and-function moment in which directors Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley's absorbing, important documentary will unspool in the borough it captures in transition.
The movie, about the fight by Prospect Heights resident Daniel Goldstein and community advocates to halt the Forest City Ratner firm from using Eminent Domain to relocate residents in order to build the Atlantic Yards development has heart, soul and chutzpah. (Insert your own punchline there about the Yards' future tenant, the New Jersey Nets.)
Feisty but fairly reported, "Battle" chronicles not only the resistance to the change but also the origins of an advocacy group − Brooklynite Goldstein's evolution from apartment owner to activist, and the life changes that arrived along with it − and the way New Yorkers rally when it's time to fight.
Like last year's doc "The Vanishing City," about the de facto purchasing of Manhattan blocks by corporate landlords, the movie will resonate with those who worry for the city's soul.
The time line that drives "Battle for Brooklyn" makes it as urgent as any Hollywood thriller. The fact that its real-life ending sits not far from the Brooklyn Film Festival's backyard makes it even more gripping, and gut-wrenching.
Posted by steve at May 23, 2011 5:00 AM