THE UNFORESEEN
Rated NR; 88min; Director:Laura Dunn 
Location: Alamo South Lamar
Winner: Independent Spirit Truer than Fiction Award
"The kind of transformative viewing experience that has made the current period a golden age for nonfiction film." - VARIETY
"A beautiful, soulful work about real estate development and sprawl, focused on Austin's beloved Barton Springs, and if you think that's impossible you haven't seen it." - SALON
The American Dream of owning a house with a white picket fence goes head to head with environmental sustainability in Laura Dunn's lyrical and beautifully crafted documentary THE UNFORESEEN.
Dunn tracks the career of Gary Bradley, a west Texan farm boy who went to Austin and became one of the largest real estate developers in the state. In the '80s, Bradley had plans to transform miles of pristine hill country into large-scale subdivisions. But the development jeopardized Barton Springs, a swimming hole treasured by locals, and served as a lightning rod for mobilizing environmental activism that flourished under Governor Ann Richards. When George W. Bush took the state's executive reins, however, development patterns changed, and the water quality at Barton Springs, as well as the surrounding landscape of Austin, was irreversibly transformed.
THE UNFORESEEN is a meditation on the destruction of the natural world and the American Dream as it falls victim to the cannibalizing forces of unchecked development. It is an intricate tale of personal hopes, victories, and failures, and debates over land, economics, property rights, and the public good. In a time when development and property values have skyrocketed in nearly every major city, Dunn makes a plea for our development-oriented society to consider restructuring the relationship between our values and the environment that sustains us.
Kid Policy: 18 and up; Children 6 and up will be allowed only with a parent or guardian. No children under the age of 6 will be allowed.
Screenings (click on a show time to buy tickets):
No Shows Found