Embedded Files
A Film Screening & Conversation with Filmmakers
A Film Screening & Conversation with Filmmakers
February 24th, 2025
4:15 pm - 6:30 pm
Oliva Hall, Cummings Art Center, Connecticut College
Through first-person accounts and interviews with residents of New London and other Connecticut cities, the new CT Public documentary film Fighting for Home (2024) explores the legacy of past exclusionary zoning and redlining policies in the current housing crisis. The film screening will be followed by a conversation with the filmmakers.
Moderator:
Fionnuala Darby-Hudgens
Director of Data Strategic Planning, CTData Collaborative
Panelists:
Investigative Journalist and Filmmaker
Secretary, Middletown Planning & Zoning Commission
Investigative Reporter, Hearst Connecticut Media Group
The Fighting for Home (2024) screening sparked a powerful discussion on how housing policy perpetuates structural inequalities through exclusionary zoning. The film underscores how once explicitly racial practices have evolved into subtler economic barriers and continue to determine access to secure and affordable housing. The conversation concentrated on power and voice in the community – who speaks, who decides, and who belongs. Local interests justify barriers to development by raising concerns over municipal autonomy, which often masks deeper fears about integration. The examination of “community character” to resist change raises fundamental questions of who we consider to be our neighbors and community members. The panel emphasized the need for residents to raise awareness and reclaim decision-making spaces. Without confronting these deeper dynamics, exclusionary practices will continue to dominate social landscapes even in spite of well-designed policies.
--Ascher MacLean, CC’25
Unfreedom Film Screening 2.movLocation & Parking Information
Location & Parking Information
Follow [Un]Freedom parking and event signs
Oliva Hall is located on the first floor of the Cummings Art Center.
The South Parking Lot is the closest to the Cummings Art Center.
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