POV, Emergent City
PBS Western Reserve (WNEO 45.1 / WEAO 49.1):
Sunday, Aug. 24, at 11 PM
Monday, Aug. 25, at 4 AM
Fusion (WNEO 45.2 / WEAO 49.2):
Monday, Aug. 18, at 10 PM
Saturday, Aug. 23, at noon
EMERGENT CITY is a story about the rise of civic engagements in American democracy with the residents of a single Brooklyn community facing affordable housing pressures and the onslaught of new development proposals; factors that risk transforming their neighborhood for good. The documentary follows the residents of Sunset Park throughout a decade-long fight for the future of the district–and of New York City itself.
The film features residents of Sunset Park facing a tangled web of rising rents, a legacy of environmental racism, and the loss of the industrial jobs that once sustained their community. When a global developer purchases Industry City — a massive industrial complex on the waterfront — and begins to transform it into an “innovation district,” a battle erupts over the future of the neighborhood and of New York City itself.
EMERGENT CITY is a meticulously crafted civic epic that gives viewers a front-row seat to the public and private spaces where the city is shaped. With extraordinary access, the film tracks an ensemble of participants, including the local council members, Industry City’s developers, and community members with divergent stakes. The film explores the profound intersections of gentrification, climate crisis, and real estate development and asks how change might emerge from dialogue and collective action in a world where too many outcomes are constrained by money, politics, and business as usual.
