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
Architects for Public Good
The neoliberal prioritization of profit in the development of cities is drastically impacting the appearance and function of cities worldwide. Social and government housing providers are told to follow the lead of private housing providers, taking away the government's ability to innovate and push the envelope in the housing space. At the same time, in some countries, private developers rely on commercial and retail space in apartment buildings being rented out to stable, high-earning tenants like banks and corporations, limiting cities' potential for growth and space optimization.
For decades, more than 50% of architects worked for the public sector, but today that's down to just 0.2%. Where did all the architects go? How can we balance the urgent need for more housing with the need for more intentionally designed, community-oriented spaces? How can architects help us create the future we want to see?
Fredrik & Leilani sit down with architect, strategic and philosophical designer at Dark Matter Labs, and author of REopening of a city, Jenny Grettve, and Finn Williams, city architect of Malmö and co-founder of Public Practice to discuss the role of architects in designing cities that improve our quality of life.