Families living on the South Dakota Pine Ridge Reservation crowd into mold-infested trailers. Others are on the brink of losing homes to foreclosure in the old Pennsylvania coal town of Wilkes-Barre, camped out on the streets of Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles, and displaced by the massive destruction of public housing complexes in cities across the country. This is what Raquel Rolnik, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, saw when she heeded a call to visit the United States during the heart of the housing crisis. And it’s what more than 100 grassroots organizations captured on camera in More Than A Roof, the documentary film recording her visit, along with the personal testimonies of those impacted. Part travelogue, part call to action, More Than A Roof is a model of grassroots media making and movement building, created by people who live in crisis but believe that something better is possible.

The film will be launched nationwide beginning in October 2011 with a series of community screenings organized by the Campaign to Restore National Housing Rights.  This nationally coordinated effort is being organized on the occasion of the second anniversary of the October 2009 official mission of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing to the United States and in solidarity with World Habitat Days/World Zero Eviction Days 2011, September 15 – October 31.  The film is produced by the Campaign to Restore National Housing Rights, Housing is a Human Right, and the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative. See www.morethanaroofmovement.org for more information.

If you’d like a copy of Coming Home: The Dry Storm, More Than A Roof, or A Clear View of Public Housing, please contact us!  We have conversation-starters, free DVDs, and more. Bring More Than A Roof to your community, and build the movement by including a discussion panel or turning it into a community storytelling opportunity.