Urbs et Civitas
Jean-Paul Lebesson
1998 - 52 min - Betacam SP - Couleur - France

For seven years, Bernard Devert and his team have been engaged in a very voluntarist action with the leitmotiv : "break down isolation, promote ethnic and social mixing, make what is urban a factor of integration rather than of rifts and confrontations".
Bernard Devert – who is a priest – and his friends don't beat about the bush to impose their ideas about the city : they set up and develop efficient technical and financial tools. "Habitat and Humanism" is today a real social holding, composed of ten financial and real estate companies. From Lyon their action spreads out all over France, having since 1990 enabled 2200 families to be rehoused.
The film invites us to discover this unprecedented adventrure, leading us to measure the cultural and economic stakes of a movement which is beginning to be talked about.