When No One Is Watching

Sydney Green is a young woman whose life was turned upside down by her emotionally abusive ex-husband Marcus. She returns to her mother’s home in Brooklyn to find comfort in her family and neighborhood. However, she returns to find that her mother has fallen so ill that she effectively sold her house to a debt relief company; the neighborhood has also been completely changed by gentrification. Sydney’s history with emotional abuse makes her question her own instincts about her new white neighbors. Nonetheless, Sydney is an empowered woman who refuses to sit back and allow her white neighbors to threaten her with the police. Instead, she seeks to fight gentrification with Black culture. She researches Black history to create a historical tour of Brooklyn that pays homage to the Black residents who built the community. As a result, Sydney is seen as a primary threat to the white residents’ “Rejuvenation Plan.” They seek to imprison Sydney and use her for testing, but she fights back for herself, her dead mother, and her love for the Black community.

Theo is a young white man who moves into Sydney’s neighborhood. Though he is technically part of the gentrification process, he is not racist and enjoys the community that his Black neighbors have established.