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
Platform Capitalism – Air BnB’s Takeover + the Cities that Resist
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Summer! Time to kick-back and get away. With holidays on the agenda, The Filmmaker and the Advocate take a deeper dive into Air BnB and the short-term rental world. Joined by Professor of Urban Studies and Planning at University College London, Claire Colomb, Leilani and Fredrik discuss the rapid rise of Air BnB in 16 cities across Europe – going from zero presence in 2010 to 18,000 listings in Amsterdam, 26,000 in Berlin, 28,000 in Barcelona, 48,000 in London and just over 60,000 in Paris in a six-year period. The impact of this on cities is considerable – from a decline in long-term housing stock, an increase in rents and overall living costs, to the dominance of tourist amenities which are replacing community services for long-term residents. Now valued at $100 billion USD, the multi-national is flexing its might, increasingly sitting at political tables, wielding resources and influence. But City governments like Berlin, Barcelona, Madrid and others are pushing back – finding creative ways to protect their cities and those who live there.
For more about Air BnB see:
Regulating short-term rentals. Platform-based property rentals in European cities: the policy debates by Claire Colomb and Tatiana de Souza
https://www.propertyresearchtrust.org/short_term_rentals.html
The Airbnb ‘movement’ for deregulation how platform-sponsored grassroots lobbying is changing politics by L. Yates https://research.ethicalconsumer.org/research-hub/ethical-consumption-review/airbnbs-growing-political-power
Produced by WG Film
Recorded & Edited by Mikey Jones
Music by Florencia Di Concilio
Social Media & Support - Maja Moberg