Summer Word Food: No Words & Water

The Pushback Talks Summer Series is back!

This summer, Fredrik & Leilani are serving up what we call Word Food – bite-sized conversations that pack a punch. Here's how it works: each week, we randomly select two words and dive into a 10-15 minute exploration of how these seemingly simple words intersect with our complex socio-political moment.

Think of it as intellectual snacking with substance – light enough for your summer playlist, deep enough to make you think twice about the world around us. 

New episodes out every Wednesday, so make this your midweek ritual for curious minds.

This week: No Words & Water

Transcript

Fredrik Gertten 0:03

I'm Fredrik Gertten and I'm the filmmaker.

Leilani Farha 0:06

And I'm Leilani Farha, and I'm the advocate.

Fredrik Gertten 0:08

And this is Pushback Talks Summer Special, where we play with words, me and Leilani, and we call it word food. Leilani, are you ready? I feel like I'm on a game show. You are. I'm ready. Let's go. No words.

Leilani Farha 0:32

That's that's my that's what you want me to talk about. No words. Well, it's really interesting, of course, for me. That started to appear, those two words, no words, started to appear about six months after October 7, 2023, when things in Gaza just started seeming out of control and so horrific. Everyone around me was saying no words. I would greet people and and you know, how are you? And people would just say no words. And I think at that time we didn't realize that this was a bottomless pit. So the no words then, like, where are we now? If there were no words, however, you know, 12 months ago, where are we now?

Fredrik Gertten 1:29

Yeah, I I think it's interesting, and I think I saw a protest somewhere in the US where women were marched like in red dresses like the handmaid's tail women, with only some solemn music, but no words. I think maybe that's it, it's what people feel right now. Okay, we have to take the streets, we have to be out, we have to meet each other, but there is there are no more words.

Leilani Farha 2:01

I really like that. I really like that, Frederick.

Fredrik Gertten 2:03

Yeah, because also silence can express a lot in some ways if we do it in an organized way.

Leilani Farha 2:12

Absolutely. And the idea of maybe taking action and using our bodies, that's what people have been doing in so many different ways, right? Using their bodies, not just on the streets protesting, but like doing these physical protests. I especially actually I've seen them in in northern Europe, uh, where people are lying. I saw it in Copenhagen, people lying on the ground to represent the dead. Um, really interesting. So no words but our we'll express ourselves through our bodies.

Fredrik Gertten 2:43

Yeah, because I see there is a debate how can you call Donald Trump a fascist? I mean, if the the the scientific definition of a fascist and all of that is, of course, a valid debate. But in the end, to call somebody authoritarian or a fascist or whatever, it it becomes a bit meaningless. But I mean, on the other hand, Lailani, our our work and our skills sometimes is also in language. How do we describe things? But you you found your way by using your professional language as a lawyer.

Leilani Farha 3:22

Yeah, that's true. And I have an insistence of using my language. I was at a meeting yesterday where there wasn't enough of my language, and I just kept insisting human rights, human rights, human rights. Even in this very fraught time when human rights have very little currency. But one of the things I've been saying about the situation in Gaza, and now potentially Iran and Lebanon and Syria, et cetera, is maybe we need to develop a new language, literally, new language to describe what's happening, to help ourselves understand what's happening. I don't know.

Fredrik Gertten 4:02

I actually think that is really important. Many people have a tendency of getting stuck in old language. And when the old language is not there anymore, you can you can use it by shouting it or be louder and louder, but in the end, it doesn't really serve the purpose. So we I think we have to invent a new language also for the things we want to achieve. Not only what we don't like, you know.

Leilani Farha 4:30

Right, right. I like that.

Fredrik Gertten 4:32

So it's also we so we need to to be sharper also about our dreams and our ambitions.

Leilani Farha 4:41

I like that. Yeah. Okay.

Fredrik Gertten 4:44

That's good. I'm gonna throw a word at you. Yeah, you have to.

Leilani Farha 4:48

You're ready.

Fredrik Gertten 4:49

No. Water. Water, it's summer, so when I go into the water, I you know the it's like the water hugs me, you know, from all directions. It's like it's uh it's a very deep hug. When and I get out of the water, I can feel a big difference in my mind. It's it's kind of magic. Water is magic. But then, of course, when I shot my last film, um Breaking Social, we shot up in a river in the north of Chile, and there was no water. The water was gone to the monocultures and to the mining activities. And uh the native people who've been living by that river for at least documented 500 years, and they were small farmers, they had no water. So water can also be extremely political. And I guess also if we talk about the Middle East, but we shouldn't, I mean, we do that sometimes.

Leilani Farha 5:56

Water is something used as a weapon of war, used as a weapon of apartheid historically. Who gets water, how much rationing of water, absolutely colonial use of water. I mean, it's like any other resource, I suppose.

Fredrik Gertten 6:13

Yeah, and then I was reading about that Swiss village that got wiped away by a glacier falling down because of climate change. Yeah. The glaciers are melting. Melting. So water can also tell us a story, and of course, then there is a crisis. So cities also around here, they are talking about how are we going to protect our city from the rising sea levels.

Leilani Farha 6:42

I was in uh Valencia recently. They had those terrible, terrible floods, and you hear about there are island nations that have disappeared and are disappearing due to rising sea levels, climate change, and where do all these people go? And who's doing anything about climate change?

Fredrik Gertten 7:01

Well, not the people in power. Now I'm I need to sip over the water. Now you're gonna sip some water. Nourishing. I like water. It's it's one of the best drinks you can have.

Leilani Farha 7:16

It absolutely is, and you know, it's related to so many things. Lots of times when I'm yawning a lot, like, but am I really tired? And then if I drink a glass of water, I stop yawning. Or headaches, they say like 90% of headaches can be chased away with a big glass of water. Yeah.

Fredrik Gertten 7:35

And then you know, my way of trying to stay fit is to go to this hot yoga. And there's certainly a water relation because I sweat like two or three liters per time. And sometimes I forget to drink enough, so I I really get so sleepy when I'm when I lost a lot of water.

Kirsten McRae 7:53

Yeah.

Fredrik Gertten 7:54

Interesting. But then when you're out in descent region, you can see people who get go around with very little water. So it's obviously something you can train your body to. I suppose.

Leilani Farha 8:05

They say, I mean, there are many studies, and it's definitive that being by water, you know, walking, walking along the water, swimming, having access to lakes and rivers and sea oceans is very good for the soul, very good for the for mental health.

Fredrik Gertten 8:26

25 years ago, it's actually the anniversary now. We made a film called Walking on Water. And it was about the building of the bridge between Malmo and Copenhagen. Right. So when we shot that film, we were out on the water a lot, you know, morning with the workers going out. And you know, it was like it's it's nice to be. And when I was really young, I worked as a beer man on a ferry between Malmo and Copenhagen, and I served beer and carried beer from the port into the ship. I was also water, but people got really drunk of that water, so a bit different.

Leilani Farha 9:06

When I was young, I worked on Toronto Island uh for a summer. It was one of the best jobs I've ever had, still to date. And I had to take this little ferry across Lake Ontario from the shore of Toronto to this island, Center Island, it's called. Was pretty nice. It was a nice way to spend my summers.

Fredrik Gertten 9:27

It is to commute by ferry is very different to commute by bus. Very different. Yes. And in many cities like Copenhagen, Stockholm, and others, and many, many more. Of course, you go to Venice or Istanbul, you commute by ferry. It's beautiful. Very nice. You can do that in New York City also. Mm-hmm. That's nice. Actually, it's cool. So that was like two words, and we are rolling. Leilani, enjoy your summer. Thanks. Enjoy your swim.

Leilani Farha 9:57

Thanks. So if you like our podcast, you have to let us know. Please send us comments, rate us. I think that helps. Promote the podcast. Tell your friends about us. We need more listeners, and we need a little bit of love too. Love can come in the form of money. If you want to give us a little money every month, you can go to patreon.com, look for pushback talks. Every euro, every pound, every dollar buys Frederick a cortato. No, it helps us produce the podcast. Otherwise, we do it for free.

Fredrik Gertten 10:37

See you next week. More words in our word food.

Leilani Farha 10:41

Word food. Bye, Frederick.

Fredrik Gertten 10:43

Bye, Lelani.

Kirsten McRae 10:48

Pushback Talks is produced by WG Film. To support the podcast, become a patron by going to patreon.com slash pushback talks. Follow us on social media at make underscore the shift and push underscore the film. Or check out our websites makeshift.org, pushthefilm.com, or breaking socialfilm.com.