Real Estate & Property Law

Preview Of Eminent Domain Doc "Battle of Brooklyn"

By Robert Thomas (inversecondemnation.com)

The makers of "Battle of Brooklyn," a documentary about the controversial Atlantic Yards project, will present preview screengs of their film later this week at the pcoming American Law Institute-American Bar Association's eminent domain law conference (Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation, and Condemnation 101: Making the Complex Simple in Eminent Domain,) in Coral Gables, Florida. Here's a summary:

The film is a close-range look at the fight to stop condemnation waged by property owners and residents living in the footprint of the Atlantic Yards Project, a massive real estate development proposal to build 16 skyscrapers and a basketball arena for the New Jersey Nets in the heart of  Brooklyn. 

Daniel Goldstein's apartment sits at what would be center court of the new arena.  He is dragged into the fight because he simply can't believe that the government should use the power of Eminent Domain to take his property and hand it off to a private developer. He and others form a community activist group to develop alternative plans to the proposal and to expose misconceptions about the project in the media.  Going up against the largest publicly traded real estate developer in the U.S., a mayor, and Russian oligarch (all billionaires), he wages an all out battle top stop the project takes his case to the State's highest court of law. 

Along the way, Daniel falls in love, gets married and starts a family. Compiled from almost 500 hours of footage, Battle of Brooklyn is an epic tale of how far people will go to fight for what they believe in.

About The Filmmakers

As an award-winning multimedia production studio, RUMUR Inc, has collaborated with such high profile clients as HBO, A&E, IFC, PBS, AOL, The New York Times, The New York Public Library and the NYC Department of Education to produce feature films, mini-series, industrial commercials, and web applications. 

RUMUR has a reputation for producing and distributing provocative documentaries that both garner critical acclaim and have the power to move people to action. Battle of Brooklyn will be the centerpiece of a campaign to re-examine state laws regarding eminent domain and property rights.

For more info visit rumur.com/about

If you are attending the conference, be sure to catch one of the preview showings. We'll post a review once we've seen the movie.

Full post as published by inversecondemnation on February 15, 2011 (boomark / email).