Press
“I headed over to Metrotech, the giant office complex. On the way, I noticed how different the lively Fulton Mall is from the office zone… The narrator explained that residents worry that new development that’s already being built as part of the city’s Downtown Brooklyn Plan will be too much like Metrotech - cold and uninviting… Only time will tell whether that unwelcome feeling will spread out from Metrotech and throughout the rest of the neighborhood. In the meantime, take the Anyplace, Brooklyn tour to hear from the people still trying to hang on.”
The Brooklyn Paper, December 2007
“Downtown Brooklyn has lately been embattled in a private vs. public real estate war, that creates a new use of “public” government as the ruler of all it surveys… Samara Smith responded to this battle, compiling two years of documentary sound recording, interviews, and research to create Anyplace, Brooklyn, an audio walking tour that critically examines this struggle, while providing guided observations on the visually changing downtown landscape… get a more personalized lowdown on the eminent domain and re-organizing of city streets around Fulton Mall.”
WFMU’s Beware of the Blog, November 2007
“Excellent way to pick up some valuable perspective on an important part of Brooklyn about to undergo a lot of development.”
The Gowanus Lounge, November 2007
“A free audio-guided walking tour of the history and near future of Downtown Brooklyn.”
Brownstoner, November 2007
“Anyplace Brooklyn, an hour-long audio tour through downtown Brooklyn filled with candid interviews from locals who are losing their homes to eminent domain to folks who remember what life was like pre-Metro Tech. It will replace that vague notion of yours about what Brooklyn is becoming with something concrete.”
Brooklyn Based, September 2007
“Metrotech is a section of Brooklyn that I never really thought to photograph before. I have to admit that there was nothing to catch my eye in its featureless corporate landscape. But that’s exactly what caught the eye of documentarian Samara Smith, the creator of the anyplace Brooklyn Walking Tour. As a part of the 2007 Conflux Festival, Smith has created a soundscape exploration of the many transformations that have remade this corner of old Brooklyn into a gleaming and sterile facade of the future. The focus of this walking tour, in her own words, is “to explore critical issues raised by the city’s development plans for this area including: public space, democracy, eminent domain, freedom of expression, and privatization.” She accomplishes this with an engaging manner and simply worded approach. Smith compressed two years worth of research into a 60 minute walking tour, allowing one to walk in her steps, listening to interviews with area residents and activists, and seeing this space in a whole new way.”