10/29 - Whose Barrio? A film by Ed Morales & Laura Rivera

Thursday, October 29th, 6:00 PM
20 Cooper Square, 4th Floor

WHOSE BARRIO? is an emotionally charged look at the changes in Manhattan’s Spanish Harlem as real estate speculation pushes rents and property values past the point of affordability for most area residents. Directed and produced by Ed Morales and Laura Rivera, WHOSE BARRIO? made its world premiere at the New York International Latino Film Festival on August 2, 2009 and will be featured at the Long Island Latino International Film Festival in November 2009.
 
“Whose Barrio?” tackles the thorny question of who gets a say in what some call the neighborhood’s development, and others its gentrification. The film, which features cameo appearances by poet Mariposa, musicians Aurora Flores and Benny Ayala, activist Dylcia Pagán and filmmaker Vagabond, digs deep into the flavor of a neighborhood long regarded as a cultural homeland for Latinos in New York.

Following the stories of José Rivera and James Garcia, who represent the old guard and the newcomers in the neighborhood, the film reveals a complex web of individual and community interests. While new condo owner Garcia advocates for an uptick in the neighborhood’s “quality of life,” Rivera worries he is being forced out by wealthier newcomers.
 
Community activists from Movement for Justice in El Barrio, who organize tenants against bad landlords, clash with City Councilwoman Melissa Mark Viverito, who searches for pragmatic ways to make sure residents are not overrun by developers.
 
Eventually, even the filmmakers are unexpectedly caught up in the controversy when they are forced out of their own apartment in Brooklyn when their landlord sells their building as real estate prices skyrocket.

The stories of individual choices and concerns for the future give way to a vocal debate between different constituencies of the community. While everyone seems to agree that change is inevitable, the film climaxes at a town hall meeting that is a classic exercise in rowdy New York politics.

To view the trailer for Whose Barrio, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N9IhwXsvDI

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

 ED MORALES is a Bronx native who has covered New York as a print journalist for publications like The Village Voice, The Nation, The New York Times, and the Progressive Media Project. He has written a column on Latin music for Newsday for the last seven years. He is the author of two books, Living in Spanglish (St. Martins) and The Latin Beat (Da Capo Press). He was a touring member of Nuyorican Poets Café Live in the 1990s and a Revson Fellow at Columbia University in 2006-7. Whose Barrio? was inspired by “Spanish Harlem on His Mind,” an essay published in 2003 in  The New York Times and in the anthology New York Stories: The Best of the City Section of the New York Times, edited by Connie Rosenblum (NYU Press).

LAURA RIVERA is a news reporter at Newsday. She received a Master’s degree in Journalism from NYU in 2006, where her thesis was on the gentrification of East Harlem. Her journalistic work has appeared in The New York Times, El Diario La Prensa, and The Star-Ledger. She previously worked as a producer/on camera reporter for Cultura Viva, a nightly hourlong news show about culture and fine art broadcast on WIPR, channel 6 in her native San Juan, Puerto Rico.