Living Los Sures is a collaborative documentary about the Southside of Williamsburg, Brooklyn launching fall 2014.
It RESTORES a film about the neighborhood that was made way back in 1984; it REFRAMES the Southside today in 30 short documentary projects; and it hopes to be a REUNION of sorts for residents across Los Sures through many events and shared stories.
YOU CAN BE A PART OF THIS PROJECT.
To celebrate the creation of seven new documentary projects made this year as part of the UnionDocs Collaborative Production Living Los Sures, a special public preview will be held in Sternberg (aka Lindsay) Park on Saturday June 7th starting at 7:00pm.
7:30pm: DJ Sebastian Diaz Aguirre @Sternberg Park
8:30pm: Preview screening of documentaries by the UnionDocs Collaborative Studio @Sternberg Park
10pm: Doors at UnionDocs (322 Union Ave), Music from DJ Rich Bologna
10:45pm: Music by Juan Wauters, Ashok Kondabolu, and Rich Bologna + Installations
Midnight – 1:30am: DJ Dapwell (Ashok Kondabolu)
ABOUT THE UNIONDOCS COLLABORATIVE STUDIO
The UnionDocs Collaborative Studio is a one year fellowships program for nonfiction media research and group production. It seeks to bring together individual talents, voices, and stories to create multidimensional documentaries. For the past 10 months, fellows have been immersed in research, idea generation, planning, recording, edits, critique, and re-edits. Teams were formed around a set of select proposals, which all moved through the stages of production in tandem. Through this effort, nine new projects were created that explore stories about local neighborhood, its community, history and rich culture.
2014 Projects include:
Alvaro (Alexandra Lazarowich, Chloe Zimmerman, Elizabeth Warren, Daniel Wilson)
A meditation on memory and perseverance, ÁLVARO follows 75-year-old South Williamsburg resident Álvaro Brandon on his daily route to feed 40 stray cats in his neighborhood.
Division Avenue, 13 min. (Janna Kyllästinen, Anne-Katrine Hansen. Alexandra Lazarowich, Stanzi Vaubel,John G. Larson)
Division Avenue is a short film about one of the most prominent yet often ignored landmarks of Los Sures, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE). The film examines the architecture and fabric of the BQE through poetic imagery and experimental ambient sound recordings, inviting the audience to encounter urban landscape in a unique and curious way.
Rooted/Uprooted, 10 min. (Danya Abt, Samantha Richardson and Elizabeth Warren)
Rooted/Uprooted is a portrait of Nelly’s, a family-owned flower shop in South Williamsburg. Sandwiched between elevated tracks and congested streets, this tiny oasis brings the local population together in ritual, memory and in celebration of green things.
The Domino Project: An Interactive Documentary + The Gentrification Guilt Meter
(John Larsen -Co-Producer, Elizabeth Warren – Co-Producer, Daniel J Wilson – Creative Director/Interactive Documentary Producer, Joyce Wong – Creative Director/Interactive Installation Producer)
The DOMINO Project is an attempt to look beyond the simplistic reactionary rhetoric that often frame the discussions about neighborhood change in New York City and beyond. It aims to help foster understanding of the forces – economic, political, legal and social – that operate behind the scenes in the gentrification process.
The online interactive documentary component of the project allows the viewer to walk around an archetypal neighborhood block with buildings representing various actors in the development process. The viewer can “enter” the buildings, where each actor in the process is able to present their story from their own point of view, and where the viewer can also explore supporting media rich information about the selected participant.
Gentrification Guilt Meter is a self-help quiz and interactive installation that confronts our uncomfortable feelings and complicity with gentrification.
Eric Winter to Spring, 14 min. (Danya Abt, Joyce Wong, Janna Kyllästinen)
Eric Winter to Spring is a glimpse into the life of Eric Martine, a recovering drug addict and Brooklyn cab driver.
This Place, 12 min. (Damon Logan, Stanzi Vaubel)
This Place (short) is the first 12 minutes of a feature-length film. The film weaves together an ensemble of characters who populate the UnionDocs community. Each character explores what it means to be a documentary artist.
Dwellings, an installation by Anne-Katrine Hansen, Chloe Zimmerman, and Sam Richardson
Dwellings is a roving public art installation that dwells on various experiences of “home” in the changing neighborhood of Los Sures.
ABOUT LIVING LOS SURES
In the late seventies and early eighties, the Southside of Williamsburg was one of the poorest neighborhoods in New York City. Los Sures, a documentary from 1984 by Diego Echeverria, skillfully represents the challenges of this time; drugs, gang violence, crime, abandoned real estate, racial tension, single parent homes, and inadequate local resources. Echeverria’s portrait also celebrates the vitality of the largely Puerto Rican community, showing the strength of their culture, their creativity and determination to overcome a desperate situation. Living Los Sures is a multi-year production that partners with Echeverria to revisit his powerful film, make it accessible online for the first time, create a collection of companion documentary projects that update, annotate, challenge, and spiral off from the original, and activate the community to share stories around remarkable local histories and important civic issues.
10:30pm @ UnionDocs (doors at 10)
Rich Bologna, Juan Wauters, Dapwell (Kondabolu Brothers) + installations, DJs + more — $10
Rich Bologna: Rich Bologna is, among other things, a sound designer, composer, musician and music supervisor.
Juan Wauters: In 2000, Alberto Wauters left Uruguay to live in a basement in Queens. Two years later he called his son, Juan, to join him. Juan Wauters crossed the threshold into manhood when he arrived in New York. Working at a factory, the father and son pooled their money to bring their family
to the borough of opportunity. With no friends to speak of, Juan turned to music to take control of the loneliness of his isolation. Juan was inspired by his new neighborhood of Jackson Heights and delighted to find that his library card gave him access to an abundance of new music.
Ashok Kondabolu was the hypeman “Dapwell” of the now-defunct rap-group Das Racist. He is also the creator of the online interview/documentary series “Chillin’ Island” and is a DJ on the East Village Radio show of the same name. He also writes columns and reviews for online magazines Noisey and Talkhouse. His website is dapwell.com and you can find him on Twitter at @dapwell
Panache is a North American booking agency with offices in NY, SF and Memphis. We are a boutique agency that prioritizes each of out artists, placing their needs first while acting as a foundation for creating a successful, prominent and long term career as a musician in an industry that is constantly evolving. We represent artists that are passionate about their music, and strive to match that creativity with our unique and enthusiastic approach to booking. We bridge the gap between DIY culture and the mainstream music industry through booking shows in both conventional venues as well as experimenting with unique environments to create a more enjoyable stimulating experience.
Brooklyn Cupcake Founded by sisters Carmen Rodriguez and Gina Madera, Brooklyn Cupcake is a story of unconditional belief and unrelenting commitment. What began as simply weekend cupcakes for the family children has become NYC’s celebrated new cupcake shop. Taking advantage of their mixed cultural background and Brooklyn upbringing, with the help of their cousin, Michele Caballero, the sisters created a menu of Puerto Rican and Italian inspired cupcakes. The flavors included favorites like Flan, Dulce de Leche, Tres Leche, Tiramisu, Rainbow Cookie and Coquito. Today Brooklyn Cupcake is The Best of New York as per the NY Daily News readers. The shop is listed in the Zagat NY Dining Guide and enjoys an incredible following throughout the Tri-State area and beyond.
