Spotlighting a Vulture Culture

in Bed-Stuy has survived .

But it keeps coming back. And each time it does, it comes back stronger.

The Brooklyn Free Store, an all-volunteer-run outdoor market that gives away used items, will be the subject of a short documentary entitled, “Vulture Culture,” premiering this Sunday, as a part of the DOC NYC Film Festival at New York University.

Eric Rockey, Vulture Culture’s director and producer, asks, Can you build a community out of garbage?

He looks for the answer while filming Free Store creators "In Our Hearts Collective" giving away donated items and hosting community dinners with food rescued from dumpsters. Conflict enters when their efforts are threatened by natural forces, such as weather, as well as unnatural forces in the form of anonymous opponents who try to sabotage their work (by setting fires).

Rockey, 43, who lives in Harlem, says he’d always been concerned about the amount of waste society creates, and so he really got into the whole idea of conservation and sharing. He’d been hearing about the free stores – a concept he asserts started in Europe –so he went to the grand opening of the Bed-Stuy location.

“I was so impressed with their approach to sharing and having a low impact on the world,” said Rockey.

“Then, it later occurred to me how much of a community building effort it was, because there was no hierarchy, and no one really owned it. Everyone around it started participating until eventually, it became a community hub. It became more about the people involved, than the stuff involved.”

So he made a movie about it. Rockey said it took him about nine months to complete, and it was shot almost entirely in Bed-Stuy.

“One thing that really struck me about Bed-Stuy was how there were so many connections; it really did feel that people of all backgrounds and all walks of life were living in a relatively harmonious way,” he said. “I was really impressed by the level of connectedness… But maybe, that’s just the way I saw it.”

Vulture Culture will premier on Sunday, November 6, at 11:15am as part of a shorts program called "NYC Uncovered,” at NYU's Kimmel Ctr. 4th Floor (Eisner Auditorium).  For more information check out the Vulture Culture website. Tickets are on sale now.