The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space is proud to present our 9th Annual Film Festival to take place September 9th – 12th in community gardens of the Lower East Side. We offer this year’s festival with the support of Loisaida Center and ABC No Rio.
Steal This City: NYC Occupations on Film will explore the grassroots intervention, occupation, and reclamation of urban space in New York City through a curated selection of films and guest speakers. In a city where real estate dominates spatial reality, these community-driven occupations — from housing struggles to art movements to the Young Lords — show us another world is possible.
We invite you to be part of this special event by joining us for one or all four evenings; you can purchase tickets on EventBrite or day-of. As always we offer sliding-scale pricing.
Ticket sales will help cover festival costs, as well as support the museum’s programming, exhibitions, and community archival efforts. The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) is an almost entirely volunteer-run museum. Support us by purchasing a full-cost ticket or donating at morusnyc.org/donate. Tax deductible donations can be made through our fiscal sponsor Time’s Up! environmental organization.
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Full Program:
Steal These Walls: Graffiti and the Fight for Free Expression Thursday September 9th, 7pm -- Green Oasis Community Garden, 370 E 8th St Steal These Walls explores the cultural complexities of graffiti and the use or occupation of public walls and structures to create a space for alternative communities and foster the rise of new art forms, from graffiti to murals to hip-hop. Followed by a Q+A with Lady Pink and Konstance Patton 1. Graffiti/Post-Graffiti (1985, 30 minutes), Directed by Marc Miller and Paul Tschinkel. 2. Girl Power (2016, 92 minutes), Directed by Sany and Jan Zajíček. Steal This Image: Artist Occupation of Public Space Friday September 10th, 7pm -- Green Oasis Community Garden, 370 E 8th St Steal This Image dives into two infamous art occupations of New York’s Lower East Side: ABC No Rio and the Rivington School. Both organizations took over abandoned and unused buildings for the purpose of artistic community use in downright denial of commercial art trends and real-estate. 1. Squat Life (2021, 5 minutes). Produced by LoisaidaTV. 2. Anti-Credo (1988, 30 minutes), Directed by Monty Cantsin. 3. 156 Rivington (2003, 56 min), Directed by Andrea Meller. Robar Esta Ciudad: Puerto Rican Occupations Saturday September 11th, 7pm -- El Jardin del Paraiso, 710 E 5th St Loisaida was a central destination of Puerto Rican immigration. Puerto Ricans shaped the neighborhood with myriad creations such as newspapers, gardens, alternative housing, cultural centers and more. Much of the LES we see today was shaped by Puerto Rican residents. This night of Puerto Rican Occupations will feature Casita Culture (1989) and Takeover (2021) as an exploration of the power of Puerto Rican political organizing, activism, and artistic practice. 1. Casita Culture (1989, 29 minutes), Directed by Cathe Neukum and Betti-Sue Hertz. 2. Takeover (2021, 37 minutes), Directed by Emma Francis-Snyder. My House is Yours Sunday September 12th, 7pm -- La Plaza Cultural de Armando Perez, E 9th St & Avenue C My House is Yours at La Plaza will focus on occupations-as-housing. Featuring the squatter-film How to Squash a Squat about the struggle against the eviction of the 319 East 8th Street Squat and Break and Enter, documenting “Operation Move-in” where Puerto Rican and Dominican families actively reclaimed unused, vacant housing on Manhattan's Upper West Side in the 1970s. 1.Break and Enter (1970, 40 min), Directed by Third World Newsreel. 2.How To Squash a Squat (1989, 44 minutes), Directed by Franck Goldberg.
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The stencil featured in the festival poster was designed by Seth Tobocman to be used in an occupation-as-protest against the stock of city-owned property that could be taken over for housing rather than sitting empty. Stencil used with artists permission.
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This poster, designed by Liz Jones, features an image from the archive of 9th Street Community Garden & Park circa 1990 as buildings on E 9th street fell down. The buildings directly adjacent to the garden were taken over as two squats, the first, Fetus Squat, burned down in 1992 and residents of the second, Dos Blockos, were evicted in 1999. Image courtesy of 9th Street Community Garden & Park.