Can One Person Make A Difference in A City of Millions?
Interspersed between the opening credits of “Ada for Mayor” is a jarring introduction to one of the many potent aftermaths of the 2008 economic crisis in Spain: evictions. Clip after clip, policemen climb onto balconies and break down locked doors to forcefully drag out thousands of tenants who can no longer afford their homes but have no other alternatives. It’s an epidemic with unfortunately fatal consequences — a news report shows that some have committed suicide in the wake of the evictions. It is in the midst of the epidemic that we are greeted with our protagonist and silver lining, Ada Colau, and powerhouse of anti-eviction non-profit and its Stop Evictions campaign. Ada is an uber-activist who isn’t afraid to stand up for social change and what she thinks would be better for the city of Barcelona. After the success of the Stop Evictions campaign, Ada’s next mission is to try to enact the policies she believes in: by running for mayor.
“Ada for Mayor”, directed by Pau Faus, focuses on Ada’s journey transitioning from activism to electoral politics. Ada and her party, the newly formed citizen platform Barcelona en Comú (Catalan for Barcelona in Common) have a youthful optimism, and their journey navigating the political realm reminded me of Leslie Knope’s run for city council (Parks and Rec anyone?). Ada is also Leslie’s perfect real-life counterpart: an idealistic visionary that believes in helping people, and a natural leader with unwavering passion and tenacity to motivate others around her to believe the same.
Of course, the politics of Barcelona are much more dire than those of a fictional Pawnee. Ada and her team are up against an all male candidate field with years of experience, money, and ties to corporations in a political system riddled with corruption. The disparity between her and her opponents is especially evident when all the candidates are standing together. In one of the funniest moments of the film, Ada awkwardly stands aside listening to the others’ joke around before finally asking for her phone. This lack of rapport with her opponents is something that Ada uses to her advantage. She doesn’t know them, because she’s not part of the establishment, and she markets herself as a “woman, daughter, mother, and friend” before as a candidate. She is a normal citizen representing other normal citizens.
Where “Ada for Mayor” really excels as a film is through Ada’s video confessionals over the course of her candidacy. During these we get an inside look into her insecurities regarding herself and the campaign, a stark contrast from her public persona. Ada finds herself questioning her own motives frequently. “Politics is a dirty business,” she says. “Just by going near it, you’re tarnished.” The fear of slowly becoming what she vowed to fight against is an issue she grapples with throughout the film, and it is that self-awareness that also makes her the perfect person for the job.
Ada’s final campaign event before the election is in a public square. What originally started out as a woman and her team trying to make a dent has turned into a city-wide movement, with thousands of supporters filling the square and spilling onto the streets. Despite this meteoric rise, Ada hasn’t changed. Her stances and values have stayed the same, her gestures and words as passionate as they were before. Her popularity is a testament to the power of people, and proof that if we join forces, the establishment can be broken.
Following the film, University of San Francisco (USF) Professor Tim Iglesias, “Mission Local” columnist Joe Eskenazi, Assemblymember David Chiu, and Noni Session from the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative participated in a panel discussion moderated by USF Professor Ronald Sundstrom. There was some disagreement when asked if Ada’s rise could happen in the Bay Area, but all agreed that the origin of Ada’s success — housing — is a powerful issue that is integrated closely with politics. As Session said, “Ada was able to tap into a basic need in order to activate people to want to change their city.”
The panel also focused on the notion of municipalism, leading to a discussion as to what the boundaries of a city truly meant and how much a city can really control. Chiu emphasized the importance of thinking beyond the city, especially here within the 9-county Bay Area. He used the San Francisco housing crisis as an example: while San Francisco feels obligated to build more housing to combat the shortage, he points out that other cities in the Bay Area are not building enough houses either despite exponential job growth.
Although the power of the city might be blurred, all agreed that the power of the people is definitive, especially in the film. Ada’s journey was an optimistic one in the midst of a bleak political atmosphere. As Iglesias said, the film was “inspiring, empowering, and rehabilitating for politics in a good way.”
Dive into the panel discussion:
This event took place on February 4, 2020 at SPUR in San Francisco. For more information about SF Urban Film Fest, visit their website.
