La Casa del Migrante

At its core, La Casa del Migrante is a human rights story that allows viewers to directly confront the realities of urban displacement. Although our film is Chicago-based, eviction and gentrification are issues that affect communities domestic and foreign, and which require community advocacy. By zooming into a shocking story that likely has not been heard beyond Chicago, we hope our film can give a personalized face to an issue that likely plagues a community close to each of our viewers. We hope that our film will show the immediacy of these issues and prompt audiences to advocate against such injustices happening in their own backyards. In viewing our film, we implore viewers to consider how we as a society, and more specifically how governments and cities, view community spaces. When spaces like Chicago Southwest Development Corporation’s campus are installed, whose needs are we prioritizing? Those of the developer or those of the community in which these spaces are introduced? Our film is ultimately of and for the residents of La Casa del Migrante and their loved ones. As our subjects continue to protest in and outside of court, we hope our film will both bring awareness to their mission as a community hub and prompt viewers to reflect on the sanctity of the communities in their lives.