The six, one-hour episodes of “Brick City” follows Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Police Director Garry McCarthy and the citizens of Newark across the socio-economic spectrum to tell a story of resilience, resolve and optimism in the face of political, economic and personal upheaval.
Executive produced by Forest Whitaker, “Brick City” will air on the Sundance Channel on Sundays at 8:00 p.m. EST from the end of January through the middle of March.
The first season of the show ended with the 2008 presidential election and the birth of a baby on New Year’s Eve.
The new season picks up the thread in October 2009 with Mayor Booker seeking a second term, and buying a home. It is set during the mortgage crisis and the city’s looming budget deficit.
Newark is known as “Brick City,” owing to its architectural style. Whitaker uses the name as a metaphor for the citizens’ strength and resilience.
The city is a textbook case of urban decline, but over the years, the mayor’s ambitious urban renewal projects have captured national attention. Those efforts have resulted in new business development around the city and, most recently, with the announcement of a $100 million grant to the Newark school system from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
All of the participants, including Sundance Channel founder Robert Redford, and producer-directors Mark Benjamin and Marc Levin, attended a special screening of the Sundance Channel original series in Utah during the Sundance Film Festival in late January.
–torrance stephens
(Pictured above: Forest Whitaker and Mayor Cory Booker)
