Miami Film Festival spotlight: "Edge of Hope" explores climate gentrification
Axios Miami
*Note: This film's cast includes Catalyst Miami staff and heavily covers our work on climate justice in Miami. Scroll down for reflections from our team.
By Martin Vassolo
This article originally appeared on Axios.com.
A still from "Edge of Hope."
Courtesy of Dudley Alexis
Miami director Dudley Alexis wants audiences to see the "real Miami" and his new documentary is part-history lesson, part call to action.
- "Edge of Hope," which premieres April 12 at the Miami Film Festival, explores Miami's racist past and the looming threats of sea-level rise and climate gentrification.
What they're saying: Alexis, whose 2020 documentary "When Liberty Burns" won the festival's Knight Made in MIA Award, tells Axios that his new film highlights how climate threats are leading developers to target Black neighborhoods that are more resilient to sea-level rise.
- "Not enough people are connecting how so much of the affordable housing, gentrification and displacement in Miami are connected to climate change."
If you go: Saturday, April 12 at 12:15pm. Silverspot Cinema, Room 12.
- $18.
"Edge of Hope is a love note to the land and the people who have stewarded and built this city and whose spirits refuse to disappear quietly.
I am deeply honored to be a part of the cast of Edge of Hope, a necessary documentary directed by Dudley Alexis, and guided into the world through the visionary care of Executive Producer Dr. Marcie R. Washington and the Commons for Justice team.
It's about climate gentrification—yet even more than that, it’s about radical remembrance, reclamation, and resistance. It's the sacred commitment to stay rooted in and steward spaces that many are trying to dominate and, in some cases, erase.
For those who live in communities like Historic Overtown, The Everglades, Historic Coconut Grove, Liberty City, Little Haiti, etc… This is not theory. This is a very real lived experience. It's the sound of construction drowning out stories as bulldozers knock down historic treasures. This is the ache of watching elders like Ms. Terry Rutherford—one of the great giants of my life—pour everything into her community, only to watch it disappear in front of her eyes. Ms. Terry is now an ancestor, I believe in some respects she died of a broken heart. Yet her wisdom walks with me daily. And I am so grateful this film honored her legacy with the dignity and depth she, all who have come before us, and all who will come after us for generations yet to come--deserve.
To the Edge of Hope team—thank you: Dudley Alexis, Dr. Marcie R. Washington, David Dugard, Dr. Richard Olson, Imani Warren, and Anderson Gil.
You did more than document our truth. You listened to it. You honored it. You treated our collective journeys as sacred. To my fellow cast members—thank you for showing up with your hearts wide open and speaking truth so powerfully.
To my Overtown Community Champions and entire Catalyst Miami family—I'm humbled by the honor of walking this journey alongside you.
To every viewer who watches this: I ask you not just to see the film, but to feel it. Let it unsettle you. Let it break your heart open… then let it move you into action. Let it remind you that behind every “development” is a history, a legacy, a story, a life that matters.
Watch here: https://lnkd.in/eM_q4US8
This is a story of place. Of power. Of people who refuse to be quietly pushed off of the land their ancestors blessed, built and believed in."
- Nicole Crooks, Community Engagement Manager at Catalyst Miami
*Note: This film's cast includes Catalyst Miami staff and heavily covers our work on climate justice in Miami. Scroll down for reflections from our team.
By Martin Vassolo
This article originally appeared on Axios.com.
A still from "Edge of Hope."
Courtesy of Dudley Alexis
Miami director Dudley Alexis wants audiences to see the "real Miami" and his new documentary is part-history lesson, part call to action.
- "Edge of Hope," which premieres April 12 at the Miami Film Festival, explores Miami's racist past and the looming threats of sea-level rise and climate gentrification.
What they're saying: Alexis, whose 2020 documentary "When Liberty Burns" won the festival's Knight Made in MIA Award, tells Axios that his new film highlights how climate threats are leading developers to target Black neighborhoods that are more resilient to sea-level rise.
- "Not enough people are connecting how so much of the affordable housing, gentrification and displacement in Miami are connected to climate change."
If you go: Saturday, April 12 at 12:15pm. Silverspot Cinema, Room 12.
- $18.
"Edge of Hope is a love note to the land and the people who have stewarded and built this city and whose spirits refuse to disappear quietly.
I am deeply honored to be a part of the cast of Edge of Hope, a necessary documentary directed by Dudley Alexis, and guided into the world through the visionary care of Executive Producer Dr. Marcie R. Washington and the Commons for Justice team.
It's about climate gentrification—yet even more than that, it’s about radical remembrance, reclamation, and resistance. It's the sacred commitment to stay rooted in and steward spaces that many are trying to dominate and, in some cases, erase.
For those who live in communities like Historic Overtown, The Everglades, Historic Coconut Grove, Liberty City, Little Haiti, etc… This is not theory. This is a very real lived experience. It's the sound of construction drowning out stories as bulldozers knock down historic treasures. This is the ache of watching elders like Ms. Terry Rutherford—one of the great giants of my life—pour everything into her community, only to watch it disappear in front of her eyes. Ms. Terry is now an ancestor, I believe in some respects she died of a broken heart. Yet her wisdom walks with me daily. And I am so grateful this film honored her legacy with the dignity and depth she, all who have come before us, and all who will come after us for generations yet to come--deserve.
To the Edge of Hope team—thank you: Dudley Alexis, Dr. Marcie R. Washington, David Dugard, Dr. Richard Olson, Imani Warren, and Anderson Gil.
You did more than document our truth. You listened to it. You honored it. You treated our collective journeys as sacred. To my fellow cast members—thank you for showing up with your hearts wide open and speaking truth so powerfully.
To my Overtown Community Champions and entire Catalyst Miami family—I'm humbled by the honor of walking this journey alongside you.
To every viewer who watches this: I ask you not just to see the film, but to feel it. Let it unsettle you. Let it break your heart open… then let it move you into action. Let it remind you that behind every “development” is a history, a legacy, a story, a life that matters.
Watch here: https://lnkd.in/eM_q4US8
This is a story of place. Of power. Of people who refuse to be quietly pushed off of the land their ancestors blessed, built and believed in."
- Nicole Crooks, Community Engagement Manager at Catalyst Miami
