Official Screening of the More Than a Roof Documentary

The documentary, More Than A Roof, which covered the United Nation Housing Mission to United States is being screened on October 3rd, 6 - 9:30pm at
Northeastern Illinois University's Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies (CCICS), 700 East Oakwood Boulevard
Chicago, IL, 60653.

When the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, Raquel Rolnik, heeded the call to visit the United States in the heat of the housing crisis, a network of more than 100 grassroots organizations hosted her visit to 7 rural and urban communities and enabled the participation of over 2000 ordinary Americans. The network also mobilized a team of volunteer videographers, photographers, and audio documentarians. Their footage of Ms. Rolnik’s journey and the powerful testimonies she witnessed from people facing homelessness, foreclosure and the destruction of affordable housing are revealed for the first time in the short documentary film More Than a Roof.


Two years after Ms. Rolnik’s U.S. mission, More Than a Roof will be screened across the nation as part of a national movement-building tour. From October 3rd to October 7th, the film’s grassroots co-producers the Campaign to Restore National Housing Rights will host screenings at each of Ms. Rolnik’s original mission stops.

According to Mary Bricker-Jenkins, Professor of Social Work at Temple University and Convener of the USA-Canada Alliance of Inhabitants, the film reveals three important truths: “that the systematic denial of the human right to housing is not an accident, that we do have the wherewithal to house everyone in dignity, and that ordinary people can build a movement to make that happen.” Part travelogue, part call to action, More Than a Roof is a unique model of grassroots media-making, created by people living in crisis who believe that something better is possible.

The launch of this film could not come at a better time. With the most recent wave of community destruction and housing instability experienced by homeowners in the United States, we understand now more than ever that the crisis we face is not a housing crisis but a human rights crisis. It is time to realize, institutionalize, and act on the fact that: a home is not a mere commodity or even a mere shelter; it is the very foundation of family stability, personal belonging and community.
  
More than the opportunity to change one law, there exists currently the potential to fundamentally transform how our society relates to land and housing, and in so doing, elevate housing to the level of a human right. Towards this objective, we are building our movement around human rights values of Universality, Equity, Participation, and Peace & Dignity.

For more information
http://morethanaroofmovement.org/
http://www.restorehousingrights.org/