Customer Reviews

The Unforeseen

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a wonderful documentary about "development" which focuses primarily on one case in Austin, but is really asking questions about the entire society's choices and values. The filmmakers leave no secret about where their opinions lie on the commentary track, but this is not a one sided Michael Moore type film.

Wendell Berry reads from his work over the opening scene and Patty Griffin's Someone Else's Tomorrow plays over the closing credits. In between you get everything from Bush and Richards and the savings and loan crisis to young Willie Nelson, Ed Abbey's cancer cell metaphor, a kid playing outside, a farmer losing all the fields around him, a couple in their new house, an all night city council meeting, a parade, and some beautiful scenes of the natural world. There are film clips and comments which will inspire and infuriate you whichever side you're on.

The description here says there are two commentaries...on the rented version I saw, there was only one featuring all the people listed. In any case, this is a commentary you'll definitely want to hear because it adds a lot of background information and explanation about the scenes and people in the movie. Highly recommended.

This film should be viewed by all, especially those cognizant of what is happening to land all over the country, not just in Texas. Unless we would be satisfied living in a super national suburbia dictated by the un imaginative, we need to become aware of what is being perpetrated by land use engineers now. This film is a fine beginning.

The Unforeseen is a multi-hued perspective on several different issues such as urban sprawl, pollution, unchecked development, and environmental impacts that can result from these events. Additionally, there are examinations of the imbalances between overwhelming financial interests versus the considerations of public sentiment and the ways of life of surrounding communities.

The primary focus in this story is a beautiful and desirable community in Austin, Texas known as Barton Creek and Barton Springs that faces the impending development of a huge new subdivision, a significant population increase, and the dangers it will present. Politics are also a factor as the citizens use their voices and votes to move against the undesirable circumstances looming ahead and this is detailed also in the program.

When looking at the different sides of these challenging issues, there is a good balance of input and debate from different individuals such as politicians, real estate developers, journalists, environmental activists and experts, and many residents of the Barton Creek community. Although all members involved in these events are passionate and concerned for their own reasons, I think the general tone of each side presenting their views was fair and objective.

After watching this program, I came away with sobering feeling that what happened in Barton Creek has happened or is happening in many communities across the United States. The moral and ethical considerations in making sound choices for development while recognizing the environment, conservation, sustainability, and public concerns are vital, now more than ever.

The Unforeseen is an excellent documentary, in my opinion, and I would definitely recommend it to everyone.

I'm a documentary junkie, and this is the best one I've ever seen. Rather than creating a standard propaganda piece, the director explored each facet of this, the most difficult issue that we face as a society (individual vs. group rights). An inescapable, gut-wrenching tension builds as we are forced to conclude that each featured proponent has merits, but alas, those merits are mutually exclusive. The resulting paradox is almost impossible to comprehend and even harder to accept. The film has been accused of incorporating too much poetic drift, but I think those elements are essential to the development of mood and perception. As the stories progress, we need time to integrate the material presented so that we can truly feel what's going on, and the artistic content supplies necessary pauses in the intellectual stream. In sum, this is a remarkable achievement in film-making. I recommend it even if you don't find the basic subject matter (land development vs. preservation) particularly interesting.

Beautiful cinematography coupled with honest, compelling interviews from all angles, make this documentary stand out. What it lacks in conclusiveness, it more than makes up for with deep, thought provoking questions.

"All politics is local." And by that token, this film about specific land development issues as illustrated over decades in the life of a specific town is compellingly universal.

Texans, and Austinites in particular, are the ones whose hearts (and blood pressure) will be most affected by this documentary. But I can't imagine an American alive who couldn't recognize some aspect of these issues playing out in his or her own state, or town, or neighborhood.

The value of this story will be most accessible to people who are already interested in government, environmental politics, and the economy. Though made by forthright environmentalists the documentary will be fascinating to those people whether they fall on the pro-growth, slow-growth, or no-growth side of the issues, and rewards your full attention.

The filmmakers do an excellent job of getting all sorts of voices to speak their piece on camera, from former hometown boy Robert Redford and former Texas Governor Ann Richards, to a local farmer with homespun wisdom, to a couple of articulate local developers and the somewhat laconic lobbyist for the corporate interests with which they were aligned. The most telling moment in the film for me is when that lobbyist, who formulated a pro-growth (anti-environmental) law and got it passed at the state level says -- in a completely dispassionate tone -- "Legislature burned Austin to the ground." (That same lobbyist sent a note to the filmmakers when he signed his release for them to use his footage: "Great job!" and drew a smiley face on the post-it.)

I also recommend the engaging bonus commentary track by the director and other crew members, who talk not only about specifics of the issues and personalities in the movie -- they are all longtime locals -- but also offer some extremely useful tips for documentarians and other shoestring filmmakers. One thing: it's helpful when your mentor and advisor is Terrence Malick (another local).

I don't remember hearing about this production. I came across it searching for films with conservation and "green" themes. This on is definitely worth taking time to see. It's a scenario you see all over the country. Open land purchased and turned into suburban development.

In Austin, TX, a community fought the development plans. The Unforseen explores the balance needed between development and preservation and the issues of environmental impact and choices between profit and protection.

Laura Dunn's poetic and powerful film "The Unforeseen" is about the growth of Austin, Texas: about farmers who want to retain a piece of land they can call their own and live on, about developers who want to fulfill the American dream and transform the land into real estate, about local people who thought it was time to slow things down to preserve the natural character of the place they had come to love, and about lobbyists and politicians who disagreed. The thing to notice is that what happened in Austin is a microcosm of what has been happening in communities all across the United States. This is not a film about some special "environmental" question that only those who have a specific environmental agenda can appreciate and learn from. It is about the questions we all have to face of how we are going to live and where, and what are going to be the long term consequences of our choices.

It also happens to be a beautifully made film, that manages to capture and portray a wide range of complex issues in a way that is clear and engaging and provocative, and manages also to be visually arresting and poetic. This film brings together a number of voices and visions, and what I really like is that the film does not pass judgment on these voices but lets them speak for themselves and lets us determine where we stand on the issues that are exemplified in the time and place depicted here.

Without giving away much more of what is covered in the film, I just want to mention what I took to be its most arresting and powerful message. The film ultimately sides with the hope and belief that the values of progress, of property, of growth, and of the American dream, are not by nature opposed to the values of wilderness and of sustainability and of the environment. What is needed is not a confrontation between the interests of those who want to live a good life and prosper and those who want to save the environment, because at bottom those interests coincide. What is needed is the right kind of progress and the right kind of growth and dreams of a future with a real future, and for that we are all going to need to learn to listen to each other more and work harder to find common ground. By presenting a complex set of issues and a wide range of voices in such a clear and compelling fashion, this film sets the stage for the kind of collaboration and visionary thinking essential to a sustainable future.

I first saw this film at the San Francisco Film festival. For more than a year I've waited anxiously for the DVD release. Finally, I can see it again and share it with family and friends.

The film struggled to get released because producers thought it too 'regional'. The narrative revolves around one specific instance of land development in Austin, Texas. Yet the conflict central to the film, the battle between development and establishment, is common to every place and to contemporary life.

Director Laura Dunn came to the festival screening and fielded several questions from the audience. During the film, I was reminded of my surroundings when stock footage of [then Governor] George W Bush came on the screen and the rest of the SF audience around me made hissing noises.

I felt that the film was remarkably even-handed without making an effort to do so. In other words, I think this was a great documentary that was more about bringing the story on the screen rather than putting someone's spin on it.

There is one lobbyist who is shown in a negative light (we hear his words while we only see his little fingers painting and gluing together models of military vehicles) however, this portrayal was his choice -- he agreed to be heard but not to be videotaped & interviewed. So the footage of model making is married to his voice-overs.

All things considered, this is one of the best docs I've ever seen, and I still get chills just thinking about it. It should be required viewing in schools.

This is a must-see for everyone who loves Austin, Texas. A riveting, heart-breaking view of development in and around this beautiful, fascinating city, over the last few decades.