Public Money

Category: Independent Shorts

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Public Money

Short Documentary  |  2018 | 14 minutes | PBS POV Shorts

A film by the Meerkat Media Collective
Directed by Jay Arthur Sterrenberg | Produced by Zara Serabian-Arthur & Raj Kottamasu

Across New York City, a bold experiment in participatory democracy is underway. Since 2012, the city council has steadily increased investment in a process called “Participatory Budgeting,” wherein community members gain a role in deciding how to spend part of a public budget. Following the process over one year in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park – a diverse neighborhood of Mexican immigrants, Chinese immigrants and predominantly white gentrifiers – this quietly observed, verité documentary asks, what happens when community members come together to discuss and decide what development should look like in their neighborhood?

Screenings

Broadcast Premiere – PBS POV Shorts

Digital – The Atlantic Selects

Meet the Press Film Festival