The Ground Up: Exploring the Right to the City
A Film Symposium
Sponsored by the University of Chicago Human Rights Program, the Film Studies Center, the Civic Knowledge Project and the Chicago Studies Program
Saturday, November 5, 2011
10am to 4pm (lunch will be provided)
Film Studies Center
Cobb Hall 306
5811 South Ellis Ave
In the wake of economic displacement or physical devastation, how are cities rebuilt and for whom? Who has the right to decide? This film symposium explores the idea of "the right to the city", the collective right of communities to self-determination and equitable distribution of resources, through documentaries that highlight the organizing responses of communities working to democratize the development of urban space in Chicago and New Orleans.
The program includes screenings of Land of Opportunity (2010, Dir. Luisa Dantas), which documents the rebuilding of New Orleans post-Katrina, Voices of Cabrini: Remaking Chicago's Public Housing (1999, Dirs. Ronit Bezalel and Antonio Ferrera) and excerpts of Cabrini Green: Mixing It Up (2011, Dirs. Ronit Bezalel and Brenda Schumacher), which chronicle the demolition of the Cabrini Green community and assess the state of public housing ten years later. A panel discussion will follow the screenings.
Program:
10 am — Introduction
10:15 am — Screening of Land of Opportunity
12 pm — Lunch break
1 pm Screening of Voices of Cabrini: Remaking Chicago's Public Housing and excerpts of Cabrini Green: Mixing It Up
2 pm - Panel discussion
Coffee and treats will be served following the panel.
Panelists:
Ronit Bezalel, Filmmaker — Director, Voices of Cabrini and Co-director, Cabrini-Green: Mixing It Up
Deidre Brewster, Human Rights activist and organizer
Luisa Dantas, Filmmaker — Land of Opportunity
Janet Smith, Associate Professor, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, UIC
Moderated by: Judy Hoffman, Senior Lecturer, Departments of Cinema and Media Studies and Visual Arts, University of Chicago
For more information, please contact Sarah Patton Moberg, Program Manager of the Human Rights Program, at spmoberg@uchicago.edu or 773-834-0957.
This symposium is part of the Human Rights Program’s ongoing series Seeing Human Rights. Seeing Human Rights is designed to help U of C students integrate the visual arts with their study of human rights. We encourage critical consideration of contemporary human rights issues such as representation, voice, marginality, and empowerment. The series is supported by the University of Chicago Human Rights Program, the Arts Council, and the Franke Institute for the Humanities.
