The Right to Live in the City: Struggles in Osaka and Film by NDS December 4, 2010

Ayumi Goto (NDS member) and writer Sabu Kohso present for post-screening discussion with Stephan Apicella-Hitchcock.

In Osaka, the way of life shaped during the time of high economic growth is manifestly collapsing. The day-workers who have been made to serve as a convenient labor force for capital are losing jobs, while the large-scale housing complexes that were built in the suburbs for the middle class are being bought up by major developers, and the aging residents are coercively evicted. Meanwhile the communities built in parks by those who have been evicted are violently removed by the municipal government.

NDS (Nakazaki-cho Documentary Space) is a group of documentarians, based in Kamagasaki Osaka, the town with the biggest population of day-workers in Japan. NDS has been documenting urban struggles, at the same time participating in struggle as activists. This evening’s film is a document of the struggles of the people against the eviction and the loss of living space. The scenes you will see are of events in Osaka, but are also common in the cities across the world, being in constant and intensifying confrontation with the Empire.

Official Website: http://www.uniondocs.org/the-right-to-live-in-the-city-struggles-in-osaka-and-film-by-nds/