Building sustainable communities: a new documentary series
By Dario Berrebi
In October 2018, we - a small team from Habitat for Humanity Great Britain - embarked on a unique journey to capture the lives, struggles and hopes of communities at risk of eviction as part of a new web documentary series on urban poverty.
The season was produced thanks to the European Union’s DEAR program with the goal of building an educational and awareness raising campaign about the struggles of people who live in slums in particular.
Season one took us to the vibrant city of Recife, Brazil. A city troubled by shark attacks on the beaches as well as in the real estate sector.
Our goal was to capture about a dozen interviews. We came back with 24.— Dario Berrebi, Habitat for Humanity Great Britain
Our goal was to capture about a dozen interviews. We came back with 24.
It turns out that the voiceless, the neglected and forgotten communities do have a lot of things to say. And as soon as we offered a safe platform for them to speak, there were no holds barred.
The incredible team at Habitat for Humanity Brazil was instrumental in making this happen. You can really appreciate the benefit of having a “local” show you around.
Their knowledge of the different communities and relationships with local leaders allowed us to gain access and insight that would have taken years of work otherwise.
Right to housing in Brazil: Evicted for luxury flats
This series of web documentaries will take you through our journey, almost day by day as we visit different communities. There is a total of four main episodes as well as six smaller films providing a wider context to the story: experts’ views on housing and poverty in Brazil, activists’ opinions on how to continue their fight and more.
Whilst it was tempting to create one large documentary, we thought it best to break it down into bite size chunks to better share it with different communities online.
We hope that you enjoy it as much as we did. Please leave us your comments, questions and suggestions.
Find out more about the work that Habitat for Humanity does in Brazil, along with our opportunities to volunteer or to support our work.