El otro lado… Un acercamiento a Lavapiés (2002) – Básel Ramsis

Synopsis

This is a documentary directed and produced by Basel Ramsis that tries to get closer to the majority groups of immigrants who live in the Madrid neighborhood of Lavapiés, which are: Chinese, Latin Americans, Arabs, Bengalis and Sub-Saharan Africans. The neighborhood is an excuse to try to see immigrant groups when they are close, "at the level of space", of other races. In this case, how the space works, what its future is or where it is heading. Through personal testimonies, their observation and that of their activities, the documentary tries to provoke more questions and doubts about miscegenation, about how ghettos work, why they are formed, and dealing with issues such as racism, rejection, the struggles of immigrants, the conflicts that exist, the immigration law and the policies of the Spanish State and the European Community regarding immigration. Given the lack of presence of the immigrant group and its problems, both in films and in other artistic and communication media, it was necessary to face the space but through the eyes of the immigrants themselves, and that this space had its own importance, at the relationship level, with the lives of these immigrants and with their efforts to achieve their full rights. In El otro lado…  immigrants are people like any other, it is not important where they come from, what they are called or what they work in.

(SOURCE: baselramsisblog)

Movie Clip