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Watch Online / A Inceput Ploaia (2017)
Desc: A Inceput Ploaia: Directed by Michele Lancione. The documentary is the result of more than two years of video-ethnographic work around forced evictions against Roma people in Bucharest, Romania. A început ploaia portraits the story of the Vulturilor 50 community (100 individuals), whom dwelt on the street from September 2014 to June 2016 in order to protest against the forced eviction from their home and to fight for their right to social housing. The vicissitudes of this community are 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. The aim of this work is twofold. On the one hand, also through the activist and participatory approach foregrounding it, the documentary aims to support the struggle for the right to the city that Roma people are bringing to the fore in Bucharest. On the other hand, the film shows how it may be possible to mix academic fieldwork, activist-oriented work and visual methods to create space for empowering experiences and meaningful exchange. 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.