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
Voice of the Voiceless - Revisiting Grenfell w/ Lowkey
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It's been five years since Grenfell Tower in London burned down, after polyethylene cladding installed to make the building look more attractive acted as an accelerant and rapidly spread the fire along the length of the building. In the years since, many of those affected by the fire have had their lives uprooted, and there has been no real accountability. Many people whose homes still have the cladding are being forced to bear the cost of removing the expensive material from their buildings (sometimes as much as £50,000), despite having no say in its installation.
Leilani and Fredrik are joined by Kareem Dennis, also known as Lowkey, a London-based activist, writer, and rapper for a history lesson on the Kensington neighborhood around Grenfell, and the attritional violence that came to a head that night in June when the building caught fire. What can be done when the corporations responsible have no body to punish and no soul to condemn?