A film by Dario Azzellini & Oliver Ressler

94 min. / 2010

“We have to decide for ourselves what we want. We are the ones who know about our needs and what is happening in our community”, Omayra Peréz explains confidently. She wants to convince her community, located on the hillside of the poor districts of Caracas, to found a Consejo Comunal (community council). In more than 30.000 Consejos Comunales the Venezuelan inhabitants decide on their concerns collectively via assemblies. Omayra is supported by the activists of the nearby shantytown “Emiliano Hernández”, which has had a Consejo Comunal for three years already. The inhabitants there managed to get a doctor from the governmental program “Barrio Adentro”, who treats everyone free of charge. They also got money to renovate their houses and replaced over a dozen of sheet iron huts by new houses. All of these activities and a lot more have been organized via the Consejo Comunal. By local self-organization from below several working groups have been established on self-decided topics and decisions are made in assemblies.

(mehr …)

ZALAB e OFF!CINE presentano un film di Andrea Segre con la fotografia di Luca Bigazzi

Neda è una signora romana di 50 anni. Una „romana de Roma“. Nel senso che è cresciuta negli anni ’60 nel cuore della capitale, a due passi dal Colosseo. Oggi però Neda non vive più nel suo rione. Sta a Ponte di Nona. Nel cuore delle „nuove centralità“ alla periferia di Roma. 6 Km oltre il Grande Raccordo Anulare, lungo la Prenestina, oltre 20 km dal Colosseo.
Sara, 18 anni, a Ponte di Nona invece ci è cresciuta. Figlia di una pugliese e di un egiziano, è una delle pochissime ragazze di Ponte di Nona che ha avuto la possibilità di studiare al liceo.
More: http://magarilecosecambiano.blogspot.com/

produced by Biro Beograd
Short documentary about the protests due to the demolishing of the Roma settlement at Block 67 in New Belgrade, Serbia, in April 2009.
http://www.archive.org/details/BELLEVILLE

By Abraham Cruzvillegas, 2009

Through his interest in autoconstrucción („self-construction“), Abraham Cruzvillegas explores economies of the makeshift, the handmade and the recycled. His recent work gravitates toward an examination of his childhood home and the neighborhood of Ajusco, a district in the south of Mexico City founded by migrants who, like his parents, squatted and settled in what was deemed uninhabitable land in the 1960s. To this day, Ajusco’s landscape of volcanic rock remains a work in process. Structures are in a constant state of transformation, as additions are made when materials become available and necessity dictates.

In contrast to cities developed with central planning or strict building codes, the architecture of each building in Ajusco is heterogeneous and manifests the particular vision of those who built it, often referencing a hybrid of styles and sensibilities indicative of an individuals‘ ideals and often informed by other people, places and times. The sense of ingenuity and improvisation that characterizes the landscape here reflects the vibrant, self-reliant and politically active community (who fought for the rights to property ownership) and becomes the impetus for the artist’s own exploration of the roots of his practice. (mehr …)