“Los Sures” Doc Showing Pre-Gentrification Williamsburg Screens Tonight

In 1984, director Diego Echeverria debuted a documentary shot on 16mm film in what was then the predominantly Puerto Rican community of South Williamsburg, known as “Los Sures.” Tonight, the documentary will be screened for audiences at BAM Cinematek.

Taking place in what was considered an extremely poor, crime-ridden area of New York, Echeverria’s documentary discovers thriving street scene, with music art and dancing, along with a sense of community, amid the hardships of city life.

“This lost-and-found time capsule is an essential record of pre-gentrification Brooklyn and a testament to a community’s resilience,” wrote BAMCinematek. In the intervening 30 years, vast swaths of New York have changed so much as to be nearly unrecognizable. In Brooklyn, Williamsburg has become synonymous with the late-stage gentrification that brings Whole Foods and Apple Stores along with the soaring rents and displacement of long-term residents.

As a document of a lost part of New York, the film is an opportunity for newer residents to not only see the way things were, but also to grapple with their own role in reshaping of New York neighborhoods—whether in Williamsburg or elsewhere.

Following the screening, there will be a Q&A with the poet David Lopez, who is Chair of the Board of Directors for Los Sures HDFC and a friend to a some of the those featured in the documentary.

Check out a trailer for “Los Sures” below:

“Los Sures” screens tonight at 7:00 pm at BAM (30 Lafayette Avenue). Tickets are $15 and the film runs for 57 minutes.