Lavender Lake

Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal

Alison Prete, Rough on Rats Productions

South Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal, opened in 1866, was once hailed as one of the shortest and most important waterways in the world. It was also known as one of the world's dirtiest. Its putrid, perfumed airs were highly recommended for head colds. After one hundred thirty years of raw sewage, toxic sludge, dumped corpses and drowned dogs, the community continues to fight to clean up the Gowanus.

Lavender Lake looks at what the promise of a new environment means to those who live and work in the Gowanus area: the funeral director has fought for decades for his vision of a Venice in Brooklyn; the environmentalist attempts to re-introduce oysters to the canal; the physicist working to turn the canal into a test site for transforming toxic sludge into kitchen tiles; the cops who fish a suitcase out full of body parts. Weaving together their stories with the past three years of progress and delays to flush out the canal, the documentary captures a blighted urban space of astonishing physical beauty at a critical moment of change. It shows a community dreaming and battling over a new and suddenly desirable urban landscape. Can a group of visionary citizens reclaim the waterway and build a viable neighborhood that is also a mecca for travelers?

Palm Beach International Film Festival, 2000
BACA Film Festival, 2000

52 min. Video. Sale $295. Rental $75.