Apart from irritating ID checks and the odd accusation that I'd been harbouring illegal immigrants, I haven’t had that many run-ins with the Spanish police. That’s certainly not the case for the protagonists of the film we’ve just finished making: Spain's Neo-Revolutionaries.
As you probably know, Spain has spent the last four years getting deeply screwed by the economic recession. The reasons we're so knee-deep in the shit are many: a downturn in tourism trade, political corruption and a chronic mismanagement of public spending have all played a part, but the main blame lies with the banks who propped up the housing market by lending irresponsibly – both to the construction companies who built the houses, and to the first time homeowners eager to buy into the dream. Sound familiar?
We all know how that worked out.
When the Indignado movement kicked off in March last year, what really caught our attention was the support for the families who had been kicked out of their houses for defaulting on their mortgage payments, and, due to a perversity of Spanish law, had found themselves mired in stifilng debt. The banks here have the option to demand the full unpaid balance from the families, in addition to keeping the property. This is understandably hard on working class and immigrant families, most of which were, ironically, often previously employed as builders. With the courts impotent, and social services facing cutbacks, it fell to the hands of the families and a group of socially conscious punks to find a way out.
In October 2011, we heard about a building in Barcelona that had been squatted by a group of activists who were angry with the government. What was new about this case was their public declaration that the building would be handed over to 11 families who had been previously evicted. It was a great Robin Hood story, so we got in touch.
The film we’ll be showing on Monday follows these activists while they dumpster-dive, protest, describe future opportunities for change and show us how to best deal with pesky obstacles like the locked doors of buildings that don’t belong to you.Watch Spain's Neo-Revolutionaries at VICE.com from Monday.
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