"It was this amazing thing to document, this story of an artist who was able to fight the condos," said Michael Galinsky, an independent filmmaker who is working on a documentary about Broken Angel House.
We are led towards the first, Women in Love, by a besuited gent in broken angel's wings - a recurring motif.
From 1979 to the early 2000s, Broken Angel was a work in process.
Today, the only remnant of Broken Angel is a line of stained glass panels on the roof of a condo, an homage to the landmark it once was.
Simply by existing, Broken Angel became a symbol of what the borough of Brooklyn was for decades: spunky and expressive, dirty and ad hoc, but also authentic, removed from the glitz and money of Manhattan.
As filmmaker Margot Niederland described it to me, "Broken Angel was an idea that was constantly continuing, from the ground up.
Broken Angel was destined to be broken.
A trailer for Michael Galinsky's documentary about Broken Angel House.
The self-taught artist-architect Arthur Wood and his wife, Cynthia, bought the property on 4 Downing Street in 1979 for $2,100, just one of the many details that makes the story of Broken Angel House seem like a myth.
In the documentary, Cynthia and Arthur whom Neiderland had known for years discuss their castle-cathedral-home over footage of Broken Angel, which back then remained in a state of constant construction.
