Cities are becoming increasingly unliveable for most people. Costs are rising but incomes are not. Sky-high rents, evictions, homelessness, and substandard housing are common realities for urban dwellers across the planet. There is a global housing crisis. How did this basic human right get so lost? Who is pushing people out of their homes and cities, and what’s being done to pushback? On the heels of the release of the award-winning documentary, PUSH, filmmaker, Fredrik Gertten and Leilani Farha, the former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing, have reconvened. Join the filmmaker and the advocate as they reflect on their experiences making PUSH and exchange ideas and stories about the film's central issue: the financialization of housing and its fall-out. For more about PUSH and to view it: www.pushthefilm.com For more about Fredrik Gertten and his other films: www.wgfilm.comFor more about Leilani Farha in her new role, Global Director of The Shift: www.make-the-shift.org
https://www.wgfilm.com/
episode 2: Sleeping on the Steps – Turkey’s Students Demand Their Rights
In the span of just one year, Turkey has seen sharp increases in the cost of housing across the country, especially in neighborhoods near major universities. With the government’s neo-liberal policies inviting in huge amounts of foreign capital and the building of luxury housing to satisfy investor interests, the cost of rental accommodation has soared – increasing by 31% to as much as 290% depending on the region. As in-person classes resume for the first time since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, many students have nowhere to live. There are just 720,000 or so public and private dormitory options combined, and private apartment rentals are simply too costly. The students are pushing back. They are sleeping in the streets in dozens of cities across the country, demanding their right to housing and refusing to move unless their requests are met.
Fredrik & Leilani meet with Dilan İpek, a Turkish student, activist, and member of the Libertarian Youth Organization in Turkey. Together they discuss how the movement is growing, how it's planning to face off with faceless capitalism, and how being outside of the system makes young people better positioned to push back.
Produced by WG Film
Edited by Aune Nuyttens
Music by Florencia Di Concilio
Social Media & Support - Kirsten McRae, Maja Moberg & Alexander Jemtrell