Movie

Emergent City

100%Critics12 reviews

7.6average critics score, out of 1020251h 35m

Documentary

An observational civic epic revolving around Industry City, the largest privately owned industrial property in New York. Global developers seek to transform the waterfront Brooklyn complex into an "Innovation District," or what the New York Times called "the SoHo of Sunset Park." Divergent stakes draw battle lines between the local, primarily Latino and Chinese immigrant communities, the city council and Industry City's developers. Over a decade, within the borders of a single Brooklyn community district, a microcosm of American democracy emerges. Emergent City sheds light on power and process, illuminating systems and giving viewers a front row seat to the public and private spaces where the city is shaped. With extraordinary access, 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.

Directed by:

Kelly Anderson, Jay Arthur Sterrenberg