Ends on December 31st Video Contest!
Launched on the 2008 World Zero Eviction Days, the first edition of the International Alliance of Inhabitants Video Contest, which supports the fight for the right to housing, ends on December 31st.
Thirteen videos from eight countries on all the continents are competing in two different categories (free technique videos, maximum 3 minutes, and documentaries, maximum 8 minutes). These works are vying for honour and the right to be shown during the 2009 WSF in Belem and during the main events of the Zero Evictions Campaign.
The moment of choice and the time to vote have arrived. We invite you, therefore, to vote for your favourite film before the 31/12/08!
It features works which dramatically or ironically expose the hidden face of the seemingly gleaming cities and brilliant policies, but which are often the result of evictions and destruction, which offer no valuable alternative to the people concerned. These stories denounce human rights violations, particularly, the right to housing, which have been perpetuated in too many countries in the name of neoliberal policies, social exclusion, economic and racist policies. There are also stories about resistance and alternatives, suggesting the possibility of living in another world; a world where the inhabitants will be the builders, and not mere customers and users of urban spaces.
It is perhaps for these reasons, that these stories are often ignored or treated superficially by the mass media, which consider them as marginal facts; while the depth of this urban and housing crisis should make them dig to the root of the failure of neoliberal globalisation. In fact, we are talking of over 1.2 billion homeless people in the world, who are either facing eviction or are living in sub-standard housing, and who rarely make the front-page news. Yet, it is about us, you, our neighbours and not ghosts.
Firstly, a big thank you to all the participants in the video contest, for the commitment, passion, courage, and talent of the works that they have presented. Thanks to the force of the images, words, and sounds, they help to bring to the fore, the voices of the inhbitants, the denunciations, suggestions and concrete experiences.
Now, it is your turn to make the collective construction of this glocal voice stronger, by contributing through voting for the videos that will accompany the worldwide Zero Evictions Campaign initiatives from the WSF and throughout 2009.
This is why we invite you to vote on line up to 31/12/08!