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
Summer Series – Can Our Savings Protect Human Rights and the Planet?
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It's summertime in Sweden and Canada. The Filmmaker and the Advocate are taking a break, but the podcast isn't. For five weeks, Fredrik and Leilani bring their faithful fans and new listeners the PushBack Talks - Summer Series. These are curated podcasts from Season 2 - episodes you may have missed that are definitely worth a listen. We've pared them down, and updated each with recent news and a few personal reflections. So, whether you're stuck at home, or chilling on a beach - we hope you enjoy our Summer Series!
Most of us put our savings in a bank. But what does the bank do with our money? What if you learned that your life savings were being invested in companies that are burning down the Amazon forest or raising rents and evicting tenants from their homes? Would you care? Would you be willing to do something about it?
This week the Filmmaker and the Advocate talk with Jakob König the Project Leader of the Fair Finance Guide - Sweden, an organization that exposes the role the finance sector plays in harming our planet and undermining human rights. Using a set of international standards, Fair Finance Guide investigates the investment activities of financial institutions like banks. If they don’t receive a passing grade, they inform the clients of the bank to provoke outrage and action. The results have been impressive. Under pressure from 5,000 clients, Swedish banks met with the government of Brazil and halted the burning of the Amazon forest for several months. So maybe we have more power than we think!
Fredrik and Leilani see great potential in the model and wonder if it couldn’t be used to hold institutional investors in housing to account. And, if banks can be shamed into changing what they invest in, might they also be persuaded to change their lending practices – where so much of the real damage is done?
Produced by WG Film
Recorded & Edited by Mikey Jones
Music by Florencia Di Concilio
Social Media & Support - Maja Moberg