WOMEN MOVING FORWARD

A Journey with Mujeres Pa’lante (Women Moving Forward)

OUR PROJECT

The project is a documentary that aims to create a visual portrait of the experiences of Latin American women living and working in Barcelona during a time of global economic crisis.

The objective is to show how these strong willed women confront the challenges in their lives, how they attempt to change the reality in which they live, and - above all - how they continue to fight to achieve their dreams. The documentary strives to tell the everyday stories that these women endure – stories that are all too often unreported by the mainstream media.

Through the stories of two members of Mujeres Pa’lante who have migrated to Catalonia under different circumstances, we can gain an insight into the reality many immigrant women face. We learn about their motivations for travelling far from home to search for work in Catalonia and why they choose to continue living outside their native counties. Their experiences also help to illuminate the discrimination and social xenophobia faced by many migrants and women in Barcelona today.

The objective of the documentary is not to show the women as victims, but as individuals who fight for a dignified life despite the challenges they face living in a society turning more and more conservative – and anti-immigration - every day.

No title has yet been chosen for the documentary and it is hoped that the sponsors, as well as the protagonists, will help select a name for the project.

Mujeres Pa’lante- who are we?

Mujeres Pa’lante is an organisation created by a group of female migrants in Barcelona five years ago. Created with the intention of offering support to other women searching for new challenges and possibilities far from home, we at Mujeres Pa’lante realise that the migratory process is not simply moving from one isolated context to another – i.e., from a country with few work opportunities to a country with many – but is instead a consequence of economic inequalities generated by neo-liberal political policies existing between first and third world countries.

During its five-year history Mujeres Pa’lante has supported, accompanied, strengthened and empowered many migrant women. The spirit of our work is solidarity, community and collaboration with other struggles.

We hope this documentary will help us make the invisible realities of female migrant workers in Catalonia visible.

Why we do what we do

In the present economic crisis in Catalonia many cuts are being implemented by local, regional and national political entities. These cuts are destroying the population’s access to basic rights offered by the welfare state and among those most affected are immigrants. Even though these basic rights are considered universal, the reality is that many people, especially immigrants without legal papers, are denied the conditions a Spanish citizen enjoys. Still today, many immigrants, especially women, work under slave-like conditions to fulfil the work not included in the legal market system in jobs such as live-in carers of the elderly.

In many aspects the crisis has the face of a woman, and a migrant woman is especially affected. Through this documentary we hope to show what happens to these invisible female domestic workers by giving them a voice to express their feelings, their ideas and their claims.

For five years Mujeres Pa’lante has been a space where these women have been able to share similar experiences and work together to find solutions to the problems they face.

The organisation has acted as a space for the collective struggle to gain dignified conditions for female migrants. With this documentary we hope to show the human face affected by the crisis, and hopefully enter into a public debate with other organisations and collectives about the consequences of the crisis and how to strengthen the female struggles within this context.

What do we need

Many people are dedicating their time and energy to this documentary because they feel that the work Mujeres Pa’lante carries out is important. The total cost needed to make this documentary is 7.685€, but a large part of that will come from the people involved in the project.

We therefore are seeking 3.659,25€ from you, the sponsors, to bring this project to fruition.

When will it be finished by

Filming has already started, and if all goes as planned, the documentary will be finished by late November.

To us in Mujeres Pa’lante this project is very important to make the experiences of female migrant struggles visible and we hope many people will support us here to make this documentary possible.

Muchas gracias,

Thank you