Blog

  • on housing

    rebeccagourevitch_uhaulplease join us for a short program on housing and eviction crisis in the bay area.

    Program:

    We Are The Future: BYG organizes against displacement in Alameda (Ariel Appel, 9:57)

    Three youth leaders of Bayanihan Youth Group at Encinal High School organize their fellow students to fight for housing justice in the City of Alameda after one of the group’s leaders’ apartment complex received eviction notices. They share their experiences as Filipinx youth organizers, drawing connections between their own struggles against gentrification and larger systems of oppression, and the importance of organizing to demand change.

    2044 International Blvd ( Ariel Appel, 8:46)

    A group of tenants living in an apartment building in the San Antonio district of East Oakland organize themselves to fight against the real and persistent threats of eviction from their changing landlords. Two of the lead organizers describe their building’s fight, their stake in their community, and the necessity for tenants to organize, unite, and educate themselves to fight for their homes and resist displacement.

    Saving Midtown: San Francisco Renters on Strike (Marianne Mackelberg and Brandon Jourdan, 12:57)

    “Saving Midtown” tells the story of the Midtown rent strike, the largest rent strike in San Francisco since 1978. When long-time Western Addition tenants – many of them displaced by Redevelopment in the 1960’s – at City-owned Midtown Park Apartments had their leases given to a private, non-profit developer they organized to halt rent increases and assert control over their homes. This film documents the struggle of the Black and immigrant tenants as they fight for long overdue equity in their community.

    Holding Out (Rebecca Gourevitch, 19:56)

    With an eviction crisis reaching epic proportions in San Francisco, the city’s residents must navigate changing landscapes and communities, while also facing the loss of their homes. Using storytelling to explore themes of memory, history, and community, Rebecca’s current documentary project, Holding Out, follows four embattled tenants as they reflect on their lives and fight eviction. Questioning the relationship between developers and City Hall, Holding Out exposes what is at stake, and who stands to lose, in San Francisco’s determined quest to assert its role as the tech capital of the world.

     

     

     

  • Small Press Traffic: OBSESSIONS; a talk by KAIA SAND

    Small Press TrafficSince 1974 Small Press Trgramaffic Literary Arts Center (SPT) has been at the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area innovative writing scene, bringing together readers, writers, and independent presses to engage, create, present, critique and archive their work.

    Program: OBSESSIONS: a talk by KAIA SAND

  • OTHER CINEMA: POLITTI1: ELECTION ANGST ; J.GRIMONPREZ’ SHADOW WORLD + SMASH TRUMP+

    Kick-starting our Scritti Politti specials, 2 Saturdays straddling the US election: the West Coast theatrical premiere of Johan (Dial HISTORY) Grimonprez‘ searing indictment of the sleeeazy underworld of global weapons dealers, and the corrupt political/military leaders awash in their slush-funded kick-backs and call-girls! Based on Andrew Feinstein‘s book and with help from Eduardo Galeano, Seymour Hersch, Chris Hedges, and Jeremy Scahill, this archive-heavy assemblage is preceded by a brill rally of feisty political satire, crystallizing our collective anxiety on the eve of this Presidential fiasco: Bryan Boyce‘s Stupidity and WrestleMania Inauguration, Martha Colburn’s Drumpf and Hillary Hip-Hop, Mark Boswell’s Trust But Verify, and Hoover/Scantlebury’s Survival Oblivious. Early show-time to smash the Trump piñata !