Brooklyn Is Burning
In the shadows of a rapidly vanishing city, a new underground rises.
Brooklyn Is Burning captures New York’s underground music scene at a pivotal moment — where artists from across genres and identities converge in venues that barely exist, creating culture in real time. Punk, noise, metal, hip hop, experimental electronics — it’s all here, merging into something urgent and untamed.
Through the stories of bands like Surfbort, Dreamcrusher, Uniform, Deli Girls, and many others, the film explores the power of music as resistance — a tool for survival, expression, and change. We follow the artists, activists, immigrants, designers, baristas, and misfits who carry this scene forward, often balancing art with economic precarity, systemic marginalization, and political fatigue.
Set against the backdrop of gentrification and cultural erasure, the film also honors the DIY venues that keep this movement alive: Market Hotel, The Glove, Saint Vitus, and more. These are not just stages — they’re battlegrounds, safe havens, and launchpads.
Documenting the struggles and triumphs of musicians from all walks of life, the film captures the essence of Brooklyn’s diverse music scene and its global impact through the eyes, lives, and music of local bands pioneering a new movement in music where genres and identities collide: black, white, gay, straight, metal, hip-hop, electronic, indie, noise, goth and punk. Music acts like Surfbort, Uniform, A Place to Bury Strangers, Deli Girls, Dreamcrusher, Stuyedeyed, Bodega, and Sloppy Jane are not just making music; they’re igniting a cultural revolution on and off the stage within Brooklyn’s vaunted music halls and iconic venues such as Market Hotel, Alphaville, Our Wicked Lady, Secret Project Robot, The Glove, Baby’s All Right and Saint Vitus.
The project is an ongoing journey into the heartbeat of a borough and movement redefining the sound and soul of a generation.
