10-10-2023 1:53pm

RAZING LIBERTY SQUARE A FILM BY KATJA ESSON OPENING IN THEATERS ONLY FRIDAY - OCTOBER 27

Anita Johnson-Brown Editor

"RAZING LIBERTY SQUARE" is a documentary film by Penelope Pictures Production in association with LinLay Productions, Just Films I Ford Foundation, Shorelight Pictures, Black Public Media, and Trojan Horse Media. The film premiered at the Hot Docs festival in 2023 and has won several awards at film festivals across the US and Europe, including the Changemaker Award at the Woodstock Film Festival.

This documentary is directed and produced by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Katja Esson, with Ann Bennett and Corinna Sager as producers and an executive production team including Grace Lay, Sumalee Montano, Sally Joe Fifer, Lois Vossen, Sheri Sobrato, Lisa and Matthew Sonsini, Anja Murmann, Sabine Schenk, Leslie Fields-Cruz, Denise A. Greene, Jody Allen, and Megan Gelstein.

"RAZING LIBERTY SQUARE" is a character-driven verité documentary that explores the social justice narrative of Climate Gentrification. The film highlights a community's fight to save itself from being erased in a rapidly changing Miami. The story is set in the oldest segregated public housing project in the South: Liberty Square, located in the heart of Miami's Liberty City, which has been underserved for decades and suffers from chronic disinvestment. Rising sea levels are threatening Miami's luxurious beachfront, and wealthy property owners are pushing inland to higher ground. Liberty City, which sits on a ridge, is now a prime location for real estate development.

The film follows the stories of several characters impacted by the developers' bulldozers. Sam Kenley is a single mother of seven who has lived in public housing all her life and now has to decide what is best for her family, to stay or to go. Samantha Quarterman is the founder and principal of Liberty Square's only alternative school, who was promised by the developer that he would build her a brand-new school building. Local environmental activist Valencia Gunder sees educating her community about Climate Gentrification as a powerful weapon to achieve climate justice. Aaron McKinney is working as a "community liaison" for the developer and believes that mixed-income housing is the solution to generational poverty, but he is aware of the ambiguity of his position.

"RAZING LIBERTY SQUARE" is an interrogation of assumptions of who matters and who doesn't, and about land and who controls it. The film is a powerful exploration of the intersection of race, climate, and gentrification.

Katja Esson is a filmmaker based in Miami. Some of her other works include "FERRY TALES", "HOLE IN THE SKY - THE SCARS OF 9/11", "SKYDANCER", "POETRY OF RESILIENCE", "BACKROADS USA" and "AMERICAN RIVERS". Her films have screened at the Museum of Modern Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Smithsonian. Katja's work has been supported by several organizations such as the National Endowment for the Arts, the Knight Foundation, ITVS, IDA Enterprise, NYSCA, the Redford Center, Sundance, and the Ford Foundation.

"RAZING LIBERTY SQUARE" will open theatrically on October 27th exclusively at DCTV in New York City. For more information, please visit the film's website https://www.razinglibertysquare.org/thefilm.

By Anita Johnson-Brown