Carbon vendors fight for their rights to protect their stalls from oppressors.
No Trailers found.
Narrator (voice)
The Fall of the I-Hotel brings to life the battle for housing in San Francisco. The brutal eviction of the International Hotel's tenants culminated a decade of spirited resistance to the razing of Manilatown. The Fall of the I-Hotel works on several levels. It not only documents the struggle to save the I-Hotel, but also gives an overview of Filipino American history.
The baker, the pie-maker and the diminished long-term community of Hoxton Street face gentrification in this compelling portrait of a rapidly changing London.
Jonathan Stavleu explores, in a stream-of-consciousness video essay, the relationship people have with water and what happens when access to it is taken away. For this work, he examines anecdotal histories he has heard from Estonians, as well as stories from his own family history in the Netherlands, weaving them together into a journal-like narrative.
Is the city of Zurich suffering from ‘density stress’? What is it like to live in mega cities such as São Paulo, Mexico City and Tiflis? Filmmaker Thomas Haemmerli broaches the topics of city development, architecture, density, housing market, xenophobia and gentrification from an autobiographical perspective. The path of his life has led him from a childhood in the villa district of Zürichberg, through his teenage years as squatter to flat shares, yuppie apartments and finally second homes in various cities. Only recently having become a dad, he plans to further enhance Zurich’s price appreciation by purchasing a huge, extended city apartment… This multifaceted essay not only humorously questions the filmmaker’s decisions, but also those of the right-wing conservatives, who are afraid of losing their space to immigrants, and the political left, who fail to embrace modern-age architecture.
Targeted for several failed redevelopment plans dating back to the days of Robert Moses, Willets Point, a gritty area in New York City known as the “Iron Triangle,” is the home of hundreds of immigrant-run, auto repair shops that thrive despite a lack of municipal infrastructure support. During the last year of the Bloomberg Administration, NYC’s government advanced plans for a “dynamic” high-end entertainment district that would completely wipe out this historic industrial core. The year is 2013, and the workers of Willets Point are racing against the clock to forestall their impending eviction. Their story launches an investigation into New York City’s history as the front line of deindustrialization, urban renewal, and gentrification.
Six individuals from different generations recall the golden age of Cebuano cinema, modern Cebuano cinema, their experiences, and discuss their aspirations about the future of Cebu’s film scene.
A taxi drives through the city of Berlin. Its driver is a punk, left and a well-known figure in the autonomous scene. The stations of his trip are the most important places of the autonomous scene: all in the struggle for survival. The last evictions have not yet been processed and the next ones are coming right up.
Systemic and structural racism implemented by the city of Boston over the years has led to a dramatic stripping of generational wealth for Black residents, so much so that the average net worth of Black Americans in Boston is now only eight dollars. The racist grading process of ‘redlining’ primarily black neighborhoods, combined with the displacing effect of various ‘urban renewal’ projects, set the template for the wider scale gentrification seen today that is pricing black residents of Boston out of their communities. On top of that, the mass incarceration of Black Bostonians has also led to a further disruption of Black communities. The combined effect of these state sanctioned actions has led to the erasure of Black Americans in Boston.
Caged. Invisible. Shamed. Trapped. These words mark the tenants, clerks and even the owners of Chicago's last remaining Singe Room Occupancy (SRO) hotels. These small spaces are home for many at the bottom of Chicago's housing ladder. Cloaked in darkness and secrecy, these hotels are often maligned as drug dens and havens for prostitution but the people who live, work and own these hotels have never fully shared their stories. Caged Men is a feature-length documentary which examines the disquieting stories of near-homeless Americans living on the margins and their invisibility in a largely indifferent and, at times, hostile community. It attempts to lend a voice to SRO residents, clerks, owners and to the hotels themselves.
Kathy's family left on a Saturday morning in 1965. The rumble of bulldozers echoed through the neighborhood, and her block was empty. Federally-funded urban renewal had arrived in Charlottesville, scattering dozens of families like Kathy's. The once-vibrant African American community, built by formerly enslaved men and women who had secured a long-denied piece of the American dream, disappeared.
Amidst the urban transformation driven by progress, bulldozers dismantle 'illegal' settlements, leaving countless lives shattered. In the aftermath of such upheaval, one basti, sacrificed to conceal poverty during the G20 summit, and another basti, abandoned by authorities without alternative housing, illustrate the stark realities of displacement. The film delves into the daily struggles of individuals who persist in the rubble of their former homes.
Despite being only a five-minute boat ride away from Cebu City, at the foot of the country’s record-breaking new expressway, Shell Island is an unfamiliar name to many Cebuanos today. “Dalangpanan” sheds light on the island, following a day in the life of one of its residents to uncover the stories and struggles of living on a forgotten, desolate land amidst progressive, bustling cities. Through the voices of the Shell locals, audiences learn why and how they ended up settling there, and what their future could possibly be. The documentary’s title, which literally translates to “refuge” in Cebuano, is a nod to what the island might mean to those living on it—a home, a source of hope, or even more.
A film essay contrasting the modern metropolis with its "golden age" from 1830-1930, with the participation of some of New York's leading political and cultural figures. Made at a time when the city was experiencing unprecedented real estate development on the one hand and unforeseen displacement of population and deterioration on the other. Empire City is the story of two New Yorks. The film explores the precarious coexistence of the service-based midtown Manhattan corporate headquarters with the peripheral New York of undereducated minorities living in increasing alienation.
A short film about the changing face of London Soho and the implications of gentrification on Mimi, an aging transvestite.
Filmed over four years, this documentary focuses on the impacts of gentrification as gay white professionals move into a largely black working-class neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio.
No overview available.
On the tiny island of Martha's Vineyard, where presidents and celebrities vacation, trophy homes threaten to destroy the islands unique character. Twelve years in the making, One Big Home follows one carpenters journey to understand the trend toward giant houses. When he feels complicit in wrecking the place he calls home, he takes off his tool belt and picks up a camera.
For decades, Washington, DC has been a beacon for Black culture and Go-Go music. Now, a wave of economic and cultural gentrification threatens to erase this history, as displaced communities take to the streets to protest and defend the city’s iconic Go-Go sound.
An extended Black family living in View Park-Windsor Hills, California experience changes due to gentrification and reflect on their shifting community.
San Francisco has long enjoyed a reputation as the counterculture capital of America, attracting bohemians, mavericks, progressives and activists. With the onset of the digital gold rush, young members of the tech elite are flocking to the West Coast to make their fortunes, and this new wealth is forcing San Francisco to reinvent itself. But as tech innovations lead America into the golden age of digital supremacy, is it changing the heart and soul of their adopted city?
