Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley’s documentary recounts the tireless anti–Atlantic Yards efforts of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn co-founder Daniel Goldstein. The film opens with a title-card definition of “eminent domain” and a scene of last-holdout Goldstein standing up to the goons patrolling his condo building’s rooftop. Instances of project-proponent doublespeak follow, as podium-banging Nets owner/AY developer Bruce Ratner invokes “the royal ‘I’ ” and U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer says that job creation “enervates” [sic] him. Goldstein and friends propose less invasive alternative footprints, and then contest the legality of the state’s seizure of their “blighted” property during seven years of rallies and hearings. Battle for Brooklyn provides a useful primer on the opposition to Atlantic Yards, but ignores figures who might have made more compelling documentary subjects than the always on-message Goldstein. The film screens as part of NWFF’s “Remaking the Metropolis” series, which also includes recent docs Detroit Wild City and The Pruitt-Igoe Myth (both Sat.–Sun.).
Battle for Brooklyn: Gentrification and Its Discontents
