Inside Brooklyn’s industrial lofts and factories, thousands of people are making products that range from chocolate syrup to gargoyles! Made in Brooklyn takes the viewer inside these spaces to talk to workers, to hear their perspectives, and to see them in their work environment---making wooden furniture or metal lamps, refining sugar or brewing beer. Not everyone wants to or should work in the service economy, and the documentary clearly calls into question whether or not the typical low level service jobs that analysts many times point to, such as janitorial services, offer the same opportunities to advance and to learn new skills as the manufacturing sector does. It shows how urban planners and policymakers, in their sole reliance on statistics, many times overlook critical empirical data about what is actually happening in cities and calls into question a crucial issue --- can we afford to lose our manufacturing base? By employing numerous immigrants, as well as residents of the entire metropolitan area, these industries can help to overcome ethnic and cultural barriers and continue to foster the “American Dream.”
