Jewel Streets

Filmmaker's note

In Jewel Streets, a neighborhood's flooded streets are a flagrant symbol of New York City's disregard for the health and wellbeing of an under-resourced community. Yet most New Yorkers have no idea that this is happening in their own backyard. My film explores the impact of decades-long environmental injustice and celebrates the power of community building and organizing. My hope is that the film will put pressure on the city to update the neighborhood's infrastructure and do so in collaboration with community residents. While it may be about a hyper local issue, my goal is to give audiences the space to reflect on the film's universal human implications, especially as the effects of climate change exacerbate infrastructure failures all around the country.

Residents constantly call and write the city, attend community board meetings, pump water out of the streets themselves, dig makeshift drainage systems and help get each other's cars out of blocks of ice in winter. I wanted audiences to see that residents are far from passive victims. The green screens were a way for community members who have been particularly active in organizing to visually represent their dreams for the neighborhood's future and engage city officials anew.