RAZING LIBERTY SQUARE

Miami is ground-zero for sea-level-rise. When residents of the Liberty Square public-housing community learn about a $300 million revitalization project in 2015, they know that this sudden interest comes from the fact that their neighborhood is located on the highest-and-driest ground in the city. Now they must prepare to fight a new form of racial injustice - Climate Gentrification. Oscar®-nominated director and German-born Miami resident Katja Esson exposes the harsh reality faced by today’s new American climate refugees due to the confluence of global warming, housing insecurity, and economic inequality. Although RAZING LIBERTY SQUARE examines a Black community in Florida, this tale echoes the same challenges affecting Hawai‘i’s local communities, especially Pacific and Kānaka Maoli, as various ''revitalization'' projects across the Islands proliferate and Hawai‘i becomes increasingly susceptible to the direct effects of the climate crisis.