6.30 – 8.30pm
The NewBridge Project : Gateshead
In partnership with ACORN, The Claudia Jones Space Station presented a screening of the documentary Si Se Puede. Seven days at PAH Barcelona (2014). PAH Barcelona (Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca – Barcelona‘s Platform for People Affected by Mortgages) is a Spanish grassroots organisation set up in 2009, that takes direct action to stop evictions, campaigns for housing rights, and provides support and legal advice for those affected by the housing crisis in Spain. It now has 150 branches across Spain.
Si Se Puede. Seven days at PAH Barcelona is a daily account over a week of their activities and campaigning. The documentary seeks to explain the complexity and diversity of a movement that has spread through Spain following the bursting of the financial bubble.
Seven interviews (combined with images collected for more than one year) lead the viewer through the different activities performed weekly in PAH Barcelona, illustrated with case studies and anecdotes of everyday life. From the Welcome Assemblies, Coordination and State-wide PAH to the Mutual Support Group, the ‘Obra Social’ Campaign or Advocacy and Action in the Banks, this documentary has put cameras in the heart of the organization to visualize, in addition to the drama, the huge invisible work behind the PAH and the process of transformation and empowerment of people who compose it.
The screening was followed by a discussion led by ACORN Newcastle, discussing their work and past victories, and looking at what can be done next to tackle the housing crisis on a local, national and global level.
About ACORN
ACORN is a tenants union, a community organisation, a support network and an anti-poverty organising group. They launched in 2014 and has now grown to a network of more than 20,000 people across the UK. They have won hundreds of thousands of pounds in home repairs to dangerous properties, stopped people being evicted and signed politicians, landlords and letting agents up to our Ethical Lettings Charter, guaranteeing standards for thousands of properties.
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The Claudia Jones Space Station is part of Freedom City and has been commissioned by The NewBridge Project in partnership with BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.
The Claudia Jones Space Station is a temporary, living monument named after pioneering Trinidad-born journalist and activist Claudia Jones.
Over the course of four days, The Claudia Jones Space Station will perform an experiment in community formation, involving visitors, collaborators and participants from throughout the region.
Inspired by the model of the Space Station – where multiple experiments take place simultaneously – the CJSS invites you to take part in a range of workshops, events and screenings organised in partnership with artists, activists and collectives concerned with questions of social justice, from Newcastle/Gateshead and beyond. Private or individual meetings, conversations and exchanges can also take place within the space.
