The Brooklyn Film Festival commenced this year with a documentary called Battle for Brooklyn. No, that’s not Sarah Palin’s take on the Revolutionary War. It’s the story of love, power, greed, deceit and dedication in the shadow of the Atlantic Yards project.

Power. Unless you’ve been sleeping under a rock for the past 8 years, you know the whole Atlantic Yards/Develop Don’t Destroy story. Personally, I WAS sleeping under a rock in Upstate, NY so although I was reading about the AY news, I wasn’t living it and therefore not following it closely. Basically, it’s the story of a big bad developer (Forest City Ratner) vs. residents of a neighborhood (Prospect Heights) where he wants to build his Nets basketball arena. He used the power of eminent domain to get them out even though this was a private venture.

Greed. Bruce Ratner seemingly had just about every New York City politician in his pocket with the exception of Letitia James. Mayor Bloomberg and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz went far and beyond their obligations to ensure the stadium gets built. To be clear, the film didn’t say they were getting a kickback from Ratner. I did.

Which brings me to

Deceit. Wow. Okay, here’s what I didn’t know until I saw the movie. B.U.I.L.D. (Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development) is an organization that backs the stadium project as it will create jobs for the community. Fair enough. As I watched the film, I was sympathetic towards them. At first. Here’s the deal….B.U.I.L.D. received money to the tune of $5million to promote Ratner’s cause. They organized church groups and minorities to fight for their right to bring jobs to this part of Brooklyn. I’m not sure how the volunteers feel about it now knowing they’ve been duped. Now that Ratner’s plan has been severely scaled back, the 15,000 construction jobs that were promised is in reality, about 115.

Dedication. The hero of the film is Daniel Goldstein, the one guy who held out until the end. For seven years, he fought the project while staying in his empty apartment building where all of his neighbors had been bought out. He went to protests, court proceedings and had to have lived every single day of his life under severe stress not knowing where he was going to end up. He got a decent settlement in the end once there was nothing left to fight over. Funny that some people say he did it for the money. I don’t think any amount of money in the world would make me want to live like that. Someone has to fight for people’s rights and he had the chutzpah. Seven years.

So, where’s the Love? At the start of the documentary we see Daniel with a fiancee who shies away from the camera. It’s clear from the start that this woman has no interest in fighting this thing and Daniel makes it known that it’s causing friction in their relationship. By mid movie, we see that activist Shabnam Merchant has moved in with him. They get married (yeah, I cried during that scene) and have a baby all while living alone in the big apartment building that will eventually be torn down.

So, it’s happily ever after, really, because the couple never would have met had it not been for Bruce Ratner. The matchmaker. As momma always told me…there’s a reason for everything.

Rooftop Films will be showing Battle for Brooklyn on June 9th in Ft Greene Park.

Indie Screen in Williamsburg will be showing it on June 11th.

Opens June 17th at Cinema Village.