Concrete Heartland - Film Screening

Variant/Strickland Distribution/Glasgow Games Monitor 2014 present Concrete Heartland

Screening followed by Q&A with Rastko Novaković (filmmaker) and Chris Jones (Southwark Notes)

Concrete Heart Land exposes the social cleansing of the Heygate Estate in Elephant and Castle, South London.

Assembled from 12 years of archive materials the film charts the struggles of the local community to keep their homes, stay living in the area, and maintain communal benefits in the face of the advance of this now notorious 'urban redevelopment programme'. Throughout the film we hear the community engaging in some of the crucial battles with elected officials, planners, and barristers in municipal planning meetings, public enquiries, and interviews.

Weaving through these recordings is a performance staged in 2012 on the then still inhabited estate. An assembled group of past and present residents, community activists, and critics of the Heygate plans chant texts composed from phrases used in the Regeneration Masterplan. The performances parody the technical language of regeneration and the aspirational language of gentrification.