ABOUT

My Piece of Land is a collaborative documentary ​project about Vila Autódromo, a small community in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, whose population has been threatened with eviction by the local government since the 1990s.

The place was brought into the limelight in recent years due to a 2-year process of expulsions and demolitions (2014-2016), ostensibly to make way for the 2016 Olympic Games Park. The community was almost entirely removed until the city, on the verge of the games, agreed to relocate the remaining residents by building 20 single-storey houses on the last remaining road of Vila Autódromo.

This website tells the story of this long struggle between the city of Rio de Janeiro and a group of media-oriented activists composed of community residents, public defenders, engaged scholars, and other human rights advocates. It shows the city's tactics to force people out of Vila Autódromo and the resistance strategies mobilised by residents and their collaborators, especially in their use of photographs, videos and social media.

A research project funded by Brazil and the UK

This project draws on a longitudinal anthropological study conducted since 2014, in which Dr. Antonia Gama worked as an activist anthropologist, using audiovisual production in both capacities.

The first stage of the study (2014-2019) was funded by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation of Brazil, when Dr. Gama was awarded a Science Without Borders scholarship, and by the University of Manchester, UK, through an Overseas Research Scholarship Award.

The second stage of the study (2020-2022) focusing on impact and dissemination activities was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, UK Research and Innovation (ESRC/UKRI). Some of these research activities were severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and are being independently carried out by Dr Gama.

To learn more about this project, we invite you to navigate this website.

Please note: This website is a creative representation of Dr. Gama's Ph.D. thesis and the ethnographic data and analysis have been simplified here for purposes of public dissemination and to foster further debate on forced eviction of vulnerable populations. Pages are being constantly updated so please check back later whenever possible. See Dr. Gama's Ph.D. thesis and bibliographical references by clicking on this link.