Synopsis
When an old area of a city is demolished to make way for a new low-rental housing development, is there anything that the residents can do to protect their interests? This film, produced in 1968, airs such a situation in the Little Burgundy district of Montréal. It shows how citizens organized themselves into a committee that made effective representations to City Hall and influenced the housing policy.
A word from Tënk
In October 1967, the City of Montreal sent the residents of Little Burgundy an eviction notice to modernize the area; a group of citizens decided to mobilize in order to assert their rights. Maurice Bulbulian chose to join them in their struggle. The film gives us intimate access to the activists who are on the brink of losing their family homes.
In response to the evictees' discontent, the city of Montreal decided to offer housing that was either unattractive or unaffordable. The result was a forced migration of proletarians to make way for expensive new developments - the beginning of the gentrification of the city's southwest.
Through this struggle, Bulbulian introduces us to extraordinary people with important convictions, against a backdrop of magnificent images of the city.
Little Burgundy echoes the issues we face today. At a time when we are going through a housing crisis, this film allows us to ask the question: is the right to property merely reserved for the wealthy?
Emile Dufresne
Assistant of acquisitions at Tënk
and filmmaker
