My Brooklyn

Filmmaker Kelly Anderson confronts gentrification in her own Brooklyn backyard in this documentary co-directed by Allison Lirish Dean. In 1988, Anderson moved with her young family to the legendary New York neighborhood, which was once low-income and disadvantaged (MIT history professor Craig Wilder explains here how FDR's economic-recovery policies during the Great Depression created America's many ghettoes). By 2004, new money and "upzoning" development changed Brooklyn's working-class and hip-hop multicultural character into yuppie-fied blocks of skyscrapers and big-box retailers, in the process marginalizing longtime small-business owners who were the area's stalwarts. By 2007, well-connected developers are riding the real-estate bubble, erecting luxury apartment/condo hives, which create no lasting jobs, are unfairly tax-exempted, and priced beyond the reach of most Brooklyn residents (including the now-divorced filmmaker). The borough seems destined to be an enclave of the super-rich (white) elites, but it's not a conspiracy—just business as usual, and Anderson names names among the realty robber barons and landlords who sold her district out (no, not Donald Trump). My Brooklyn actually displays less anger than one might expect, although some rightful and righteous bitterness comes from famed street-photographer/author Jamel Shabazz (Back in the Days), whose images appear throughout. While some might argue that the material here is more NYC-centric than the average Woody Allen film, the larger issue is playing out in other urban neighborhoods as well. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)