The War Against Gentrification

The War Against Gentrification: Then and Now
with the film BREAK AND ENTER

In 1970, several hundred Puerto Rican and Dominican families reclaimed housing left vacant by the city. They pulled the boards off the doors, cleaned and repaired the buildings and moved in. "Operation Move-In" , documented in the 1971 Newsreel film Break and Enter aka Squatters, along with a short Mayday: The Art of Building Community, sets the tone for a discussion among filmmakers, artists and organizers on the films, the issues of affordable housing, gentrification, racism and how people are organizing now

As things become increasingly strained during this pandemic, millions have lost their jobs and housing is even less secure. What is the way forward? Are there lessons from past organizing that will help? What is the role of conscientized artists?

The film Break and Enter will be free streamed from May 15th noon to May 16th until 1 PM. On May 16th at 1 PM, we will show the short Mayday: The Art of Building Community and then talk with the following filmmakers and activists: Those who RSVP will receive the time-limited link to Break and Enter.

Panel features:
Esperanza Martell is an activist, educator and more. She was part of Operation Move-In and El Comite depicted in the 1971 Newsreel film Break and Enter, where a mostly women of color led community group took over empty buildings on the Upper Westside,in NYC. She also participated in the making of the film.

Carol Foresta is a filmmaker and activist, and as a member of Newsreel, was one of the makers of the film Break and Enter. Newsreel, which became Third World Newsreel (TWN), started as a radical film collective that documented many of the social movements of the late 60s and early 1970s.

Pati Rodriguez is an artist/activist and a member/leader of Mi Casa No Es Su Casa: Illumination Against Gentrification, a political art project in Bushwick that builds visible resistance to gentrification and displacement in NYC and beyond.

Josh Carrera is a member of the Mayday Space collective, an organizing center and social hub in Bushwick that is both a neighborhood resource and a citywide destination for engaging programming, radical thought and debate and connection. This event was originally scheduled to take place at the Mayday Space.

This event has been organized by filmmaker/activist Chrystian Rodriguez, also the Workshop Director at Third World Newsreel, and will be moderated by Betty Yu, artist/activist and member of the Chinatown Art Brigade and TWN's Board of Directors.

This event is part of the Third World Newsreel ORGANIZING AND FILMMAKING: THEN AND NOW series of free public film screenings in New York city, followed by conversations with filmmakers and current activists.
Supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the NY State Council on the Arts, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.

#gentrification #economicjustice #racialjustice

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