On DVD for a while now, this brisk film avoids a thesis completely
while painting its portrait of Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighbourhood in
transition. An IKEA is about to move in and various residents and
stakeholders ponder what will be lost and gained. But 45 minutes is not
long enough to develop the arguments its subjects make, so the brief
interviews with local personalities are tantalizing, but frustrating in
their brevity. If the film makes one point, it laments Red Hook’s
distance from its rough-and-tumble roots—even the nearby projects are
going co-op. Fence shows how Red Hook used to be, before IKEA
came and ruined all the fun.
This article appears in Aug 13-19, 2009.