Brian Walsh

The Skinny on Bushwick Creek

Today we go to McCarren Park to lie on the grass, play kickball or to watch a free screening of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off on a Wednesday. But about a hundred years ago, the area near present-day McCarren Park was a muddy salt marsh / muddy bog of land, thanks to Bushwick Creek, which ran through and divided Greenpoint and Williamsburg. Eventually, most of the creek, except a small nub renamed Bushwick Inlet, was filled in, and the park was built in its place. This is just one of the many fascinating historical facts in Brian Walsh’s Bushwick Creek, a documentary “exploring the history and future of New York’s waterfront.”

Walsh lived two blocks from Bushwick Inlet during his seven years in Greenpoint. His close proximity to the former creek and his passion for documentary film making—he also teaches film at the New York Institute of Technology,—sparked his interest in making his twenty-one-minute movie.

Greenpointers are familiar with Bushwick Inlet (Kent Avenue between N. 9th and N. 15th Streets), which is now slated to become Bushwick Inlet Park—if the city finally coughs up the promised funding. In Bushwick Creek, Walsh describes Bushwick Creek’s rich history, its present state, and what its future holds. Throughout the short film, Walsh asks pointed, difficult questions —such as why Bushwick Creek was initially filled in and what lies beneath our New York City parks, buildings and land in general?

Walsh’s questions were prompted by the huge wave of construction that exploded in Greenpoint/Williamsburg following the 2005 rezoning. As new constructions went up, so did reports of polluted and contaminated sites. Architectural historians and media-makers (also see VBS’s Toxic Brooklyn, which Walsh references in his film) were fascinated by the toxic sites and sought to get to the bottom of them, quite literally, tracing the sources of the contamination.

According to Walsh’s film, NYC has a history of sweeping things under the rug (or in this case parks and waterways). The city’s history of building parks – or even entire neighborhoods – on top of landfills prompts questions about the kinds of garbage that exist beneath the surface. Ward Dennis, Co-Chair of Neighbors Allied for Good Growth, suggests in the film, that there could be underground water moving industrial waste around the neighborhood.

Another disheartening point the film makes is that while Greenpoint/Williamsburg’s waterways have changed drastically over the years, our motivations have not. In the film, George Weinmann of the Greenpoint Monitor Museum, points out that as early as the 1850s, the city started filling in Bushwick Creek to build housing despite community protests. Sound familiar? And while open space is an important addition to the neighborhood, the proposed construction of Bushwick Inlet Park has many complications, which are explored in the film.

Walsh chose to make this film for several reasons. He wanted to raise awareness of the area’s history in hopes of encouraging change, for both Greenpoint residents and New Yorkers in general, and he wanted to show anyone interested just how easy it is to make documentaries (look out for “Training Reels,” his how-to make a documentary site coming soon). “There are layers of history in New York and if you do even a minimal amount of investigative work, you’ll uncover a lot of interesting stuff,” Walsh said.

Walsh uses his interest in making movies about local topics as the perfect gateway to teaching documentary making. “Often people are like, ‘It would be great to make a documentary on The Beatles! And it’s like, Well, that’s not going to happen because you’ve never made a movie . . . so, why don’t you make a movie about the plants growing in your backyard?” Walsh asked. With available technology—virtually everyone has a camera on their phone and editing software on their computer—Walsh believes it’s easier than ever to make movies.

He added: “So, the idea of a person saying, ‘Someone should make a documentary about that,’ takes on a different resonance now in the sense that you can say back to them, ‘Why isn’t that person you?’” Walsh made Bushwick Creek completely solo—he shot it, edited it, did the graphics work and made the Web site—partially as a way of encouraging people to make their own films. “I also did it in a sense to regain control of video online, to remind people that YouTube is more than people getting kicked in the n*ts. There is a lot more possibility for it in terms of creating social change and awareness,” Walsh said.

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