PUSHBACK Talks
Landlords without faces, apartments without tenants. In 2019, filmmaker Fredrik Gertten released Push, an award-winning documentary that explores the unaffordable, unlivable city, and the growing global housing crisis. Following the Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Leilani Farha, the film sought to understand why cities around the world are becoming increasingly expensive.
In June of 2020, Fredrik and Leilani teamed up again to continue the conversation they began with the film, and PUSHBACK Talks was born. Since then, PUSHBACK Talks has grown into an exploration of the social, political, and economic forces that shape our world, and of the actions people are taking to push back against inequality, corruption, authoritarian systems, poverty, war, and the shift towards far-right conservatism.
Join the Filmmaker (Gertten) and the Advocate (Farha) as they dissect these topics, uncover the connections between them, and search for solutions. How can we, as individuals, movements, and communities, fight back – push back – to build societies where every human being has the right to live equally, freely, and with dignity?
Listen to PUSHBACK Talks and join the conversation for a better, fairer world.
For more about PUSH and to view it: www.pushthefilm.com
For more about Leilani Farha and her organization, The Shift: www.make-the-shift.org
For more about Fredrik Gertten and his other films: www.wgfilm.com
If you are interested in watching his newest documentary: www.breakingsocialfilm.com
PUSHBACK Talks
The New Zealand Housing Obsession-The Speculative Market That No One Can Afford
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
The Filmmaker and the Advocate continue their season two Zoom tour around the world. After a brief discussion on encampment evictions carried out across the City of Toronto, the two make a stop in New Zealand to interview Brennan Rigby of Shift Aoteara. New Zealand’s housing market has some interesting elements; the country’s real estate market has been closed to foreign investment since 2018, while at the same time a strong market-driven real estate culture means the general population has an above-average understanding of how to use home equity to purchase multiple properties. As a result, multi-homeowners are quite common. Despite this, New Zealand has the highest rate of homelessness amongst OECD countries.
After a period of nearly 30 years, New Zealand just began building new social housing in 2018, meaning there is not nearly enough social housing supply. This, along with an increasingly financialized real estate market has created an environment where homelessness can grow at an alarming rate. In the last 12 months alone, housing costs have increased by almost 25%. Growing concerns about housing supply have spilled over into immigration, with many wondering if the country can allow immigration with the housing market in its current state.
Fredrik, Leilani, and Brennan discuss the elements that contributed to the current situation in New Zealand and how to shift a market-minded culture towards a human rights framework.
Produced by WG Film
Edited by Mikey Jones
Music by Florencia Di Concilio
Social Media & Support - Maja Moberg