The representation of the struggle against home evictions in Spain through documentary films
Keywords:
Housing activism, documentary films, direct approach, lecturing approach, SpainAbstract
Since its inception in 2009, the housing movement in Spain led by the PAH (Platform for People Affected by Mortgages) has confronted the devastating wave of housing foreclosures and evictions. Remarkably, the PAH has enjoyed a wide coverage by the mass media. Among the latter, numerous fiction and nonfiction films have portrayed home evictions and housing struggles opposing them. This article selects four documentaries focused on the PAH of Madrid and Barcelona and investigates how they represent the context of social and political contention and their contribution to foster housing activism. In so doing, we mainly use first-hand interviews with the filmmakers and a comparative analysis of the narrative strategies followed by each documentary. As for the context, we present the demands, campaigns, and protest repertoires of the PAH in relation to the post-2008 global financial crisis, which frames the political significance of the documentaries. By comparing the examined documentaries, we find that their narrative strategies split into ‘direct’ and ‘lecturing’ approaches, on the one hand, and between ‘macro’ and ‘micro’ spheres of the context subject to representation, on the other. In addition, the activist engagement of the filmmakers substantially shaped the production and dissemination of the films.
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