In the late seventies and early eighties, South Williamsburg was one of the poorest neighborhoods in New York City. It was troubled by drugs and violence, full of abandoned real estate, and badly under-served. Los Sures, a documentary from 1984 by Diego Echeverria, skillfully represents the challenges of this time, while also celebrating a community that was connected, coherent and full of culture.
UnionDocs is in the midst of a project that revisits this film and creates a constellation of companion documentary works that will update, annotate, and spiral off from the original. The result will be Living Los Sures, an interactive, multi-layer documentary that seeks not just to extract important and unusual stories from the place, but to also create new shared histories and relationships between neighbors.
Presented with Moviehouse, this special preview event will take place on the handball courts at Sternberg Park, which actually make an appearance in the original film. It will include free popcorn, live radio and music and the public preview of a collection of compelling short documentaries created over the past year by a group of talented artists fellows from the UnionDocs Collaborative Studio. The entire event will be live-streamed on BBOX radio.
LIVE RADIO BROADCAST IN THE PARK
7:30pm @ Sternberg Park.
Keep it Movin’
20 minutes
“The curiosity about love is what set me on this journey…man that shit is no joke.”
Maria DeJesus—AKA TS (Tough Shit) and her mother Marta Iris Aviles unearth the stories of their first romances and reveal the lasting impact they had. These are stories about being swept off of your feet, about being a beautiful young girl coming into her own in a rough neighbourhood thinking she’s got it all figured out.
PROGRAM I
9:00pm @ Sternberg Park.
La Marqueta 1
Directed by Elizabeth Lawrence, produced by Elizabeth Lawrence & Sonia Gonzalez
5 minutes
A parisian TV host now living in Brooklyn, Sonia visits one of the oldest markets in Williamsburg called LA MARQUETA. Home to 20+ latino vendors, La Marqueta sells food, haircuts, music and gifts. Every episode, Sonia visits a different vendor and learns about their craft. One day she works in a Dominican restaurant and another she’s learning to cut hair in a Barbershop. The short films of LA MARQUETA are a show and tell of culture and craft. They instruct and highlight a marketplace built for the community and run by the community.
Whose Schools?
Directed by Claire Richard
18 minutes
The arrival of a charter school backed by corporations unites the gentrifying neighborhood of Williamsburg. Long time residents and new comers get together in the fight for local schools.
Brooklyn Cupcake
Directed by Oresti Tsonopoulos
9 minutes
The flavors of nostalgia, community and family come together for the Rodriguez family to successfully run Brooklyn Cupcake, a vibrant cupcake shop in the Los Sures neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Little Tricksters
Directed by Alexandre Gaspar Maia
25 minutes
This film is a close look into the 6-week long rehearsal process of the young performers, ages 6-13, in preparation for a theater and dance performance piece. The show is organized by the El Puente Arts program in South Williamsburg, addressing the issues the Latino community faces with the impending takeover of their local junior high school by the Success charter network.
Reunion
Directed by Olivia Koski
A selection of 60-90 second shorts
This is the story of a community of “WillyB” (Williamsburg) natives who grew up in Los Sures in the 50’s and 60’s – when candy was 5 cents, when the BQE was incomplete, and before anyone had heard the word “gentrification.” After finding each other on Facebook, they return to their hometown to reminisce about a time long gone and a place that exists only in their memories.
AFTER PARTY
11:00pm @ UnionDocs.
Live Set from Ana
log Experimental NYC – Featuring Damian Quiñones on guitar, cuatro Puertorriqueño, and vocals, Gregory Richardson on upright bass and Bendji Allonce on percussion.
Analog Experimental, an acoustic power trio specializes in experimental Pan-Latin dance music. Using Afro Caribbean rhythms and repertoire as their point of departure, the group “experiments” by mixing it up with elements of funk, jazz, reggae, rock, and electronic music.
French indie, trans-genre producer / remixer, MBFM (Nophono, Atcha, Discograph) will play one of his notorious urban dance-rock DJ sets.
Free CD giveaway from local Williamsburg Salsa Orchestra!
Sundays
Directed by Meg Kelly
12 minutes, Installation loop.
Pinned between Bushwick, Williamsburg and Bed-Stuy, the Broadway Triangle has stood as one of the most disputed spaces in New York City. It’s development into low income housing has sparked greater division between the already intensely divided communities.
PROGRAM II
Midnight @ UnionDocs.
La Marqueta 2
Directed by Elizabeth Lawrence, produced by Elizabeth Lawrence & Sonia Gonzalez5 minutes
A parisian TV host now living in Brooklyn, Sonia visits one of the oldest markets in Williamsburg called LA MARQUETA. Home to 20+ latino vendors, La Marqueta sells food, haircuts, music and gifts. Every episode, Sonia visits a different vendor and learns about their craft. One day she works in a Dominican restaurant and another she’s learning to cut hair in a Barbershop. The short films of LA MARQUETA are a show and tell of culture and craft. They instruct and highlight a marketplace built for the community and run by the community.
another day without a future,
but what the hell another day
Directed by Adam Khalil30 minutes
A free-wheeling experimental docu-fiction… “I create because I know how. I know how good-for-nothing I am, that is. Art as communication is the contact between the good-for-nothing in one and the good-for-nothing in others.“-Robert Filliou #friendship, #livinduhdream, #artsyfartsy, #sextourism, #process, #Bodegaunderworld, #newaesthetics
Desperately Seeking Stagg Girls
Directed by Sonia Gonzalez
18 minutes
As she’s watching a 1980s documentary about South Williamsburg, the neighborhood she’s just moved in, a young French woman’s imagination is caught by a RIP graffiti signed by the Stagg Girls on a wall nearby her house. She then decides to track down those girls…
