The Unforeseen

The title makes Laura Dunn's documentary about suburban sprawl sound like a horror movie, and in a very real way it is: Dunn's elegant, full-length debut presents a frightening and powerful argument against the kind of reckless, profit-driven land development that not only threatens natural resources, but life itself.

For four years, Dunn followed the tail-end of an enviro-war raging on the outskirts of Austin, Texas. For decades, the small, idyllic university city was home to an enduring and outspoken countercultural community that found itself increasingly at odds with people like savvy, self-made real-estate developer Gary Bradley. In 1969, Bradley turne...