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January 19, 2012
BATTLE FOR BROOKLYN -- Michael Galinsky and Daniel Goldstein interview
Filmmaker Michael Galinsky and activist Daniel Goldstein talk private property, holding out, and standing ovations.
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.
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SF Gate, The Watch
The Oscar buzz was almost audible as an industry-heavy crowd piled into a recent screening of the documentary "Battle for Brooklyn" at Dolby. Most stuck around for the Q&A with director Michael Galinsky, as well as "BFB's" focus, Brooklyn resident-turned-Atlantic Yards-opponent Daniel Goldstein, and activists fighting a 49ers stadium in Santa Clara. Opined the director, whose film screens tonight at the Roxie: "It's a local story, happening in every locality."
Examiner.com, Movie review: 'Battle For Brooklyn' shows that a couple can fight City Hall
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.
Unyielding in its fervor and outrage, and personified by the divided working-class community members and long-time small businesses facing closure, "Battle For Brooklyn" is undeniably a piece of advocacy, even if unintended.
Posted by eric at January 19, 2012 5:38 PM