Urban Lab Films: Committed Ethnographies

Urban Lab Films hosts the London premiere of A început ploaia (Michele Lancione, 2017), a documentary charting the forced evictions of Roma people from the centre of Bucharest.

The result of more than two years of video-ethnographic work around the Romanian capital, A început ploaia portrays the story of the Vulturilor 50 community (100 individuals), who squatted on the city's streets from September 2014 to June 2016 to protest against their forced evictions and to fight for their right to social housing. The documentation of this community is interpolated with a number of interviews with activists, scholars and politicians, composing a picture that speaks of racial discrimination, homelessness, evictions, but also of grassroots practices of resistance and social change.

This work is a testament to the everyday revolution of Roma people fighting forced evictions from the centre of Bucharest, an endeavour made of fragile dwellings, provisional makeshifts and tenuous - but fierce - occupancy of public space.

Following the screening, a panel will discuss the struggle for the right to the city, activism and resistance to evictions, and the use of visual methods to create space for empowering experiences and meaningful exchange in academic fieldwork.

Panel:

• Michele Lancione is an urban ethnographer and geographer, based at Cardiff University. 
• Veda Popovici is an artist whose practice combines art with activism, feminism and a critique of contemporary society.
• More to be announced

Screening in association with the UCL Migration Research Unit.

Further links:

• RSVP on Facebook
• Open Democracy article during production of the film
• Anti-eviction mapping and the housing crisis - seminar on 23 February