The Friends of FUREE invites you to a screening of our award-winning* film, Some Place Like Home followed by a walking tour of Fort Greene and Downtown Brooklyn!
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About the film:
Narrated by writer and activist Kevin Powell, Some Place Like Home depicts the fight against the exclusion of low-income families and small businesses from the ?new vision? for developing Fort Greene and Downtown Brooklyn.
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Real estate developers close down supermarkets and low-income housing while construction for housing that the current residents cannot afford begins almost overnight. Eviction notices are distributed to businesses and residents that were rooted in the community for over three decades.
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A few blocks down, the city announces that Albee Square Mall, what residents consider the epicenter of young Brooklyn culture, will be torn down to build 800 units of almost all luxury housing.
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Also threatened are 19th century homes documented to house fugitive slaves as part of the Underground Railroad movement. Their fate: to be turned into an underground parking lot to serve a luxury hotel being constructed across the street. Some Place Like Home goes through the charged monologue of the affected members of the community to the passive, sometimes smug and ultimately useless empathy of the public officials and developers.
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It reveals the linear relationship between government and real estate developers in the effort to remove a people from their home. Long-time residents give oral histories of the area. Small business owners bring you into a world with rapidly closing mom and pop business in the name of development. Experts reveal the coding behind language and policies used in what is termed ?the economic phase of the Civil Rights movement.?
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Some Place Like Home does not hide the emotionally infused appeal for action that is necessary for all uphill battles. This fight is a fight to preserve the rich diversity of a community, a history, and the vitality of a culture that has survived and thrives on struggle.
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For more information, contact Valery at valery@furee.org or call (718) 852-2960, ext. 301 Light lunch and beverages will be served. Admission: Pay what you feel will make a difference.Limited seating for screening/RSVP required.
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*Some Place Like Home is the winner of the 2009 Rise Up Award of the PATOIS International Human Rights Film Festival.
