PUSHBACK Talks

They're back. After a few months of living the pandemic lifestyle, the Filmmaker and the Advocate have reunited for an inspirational Season 2. This first episode checks in on the Monsters who hang with each other and play monopoly with our homes – Blackstone, Akelius and Oatly...

In this concluding episode of 2020 – the Filmmaker and the Advocate go back to the cities where PUSH-The film has travelled and successfully helped to push back  against financialization – from its World Premiere in Copenhagen, to its North American debut in Toronto and a whole lot of places in between and thereafter...

Nicholas Burton, his wife and his dog were living on the 19th floor of the Grenfell Tower in June 2017, when the fire struck. Nicholas survived, but his wife and dog did not. He’s been fighting ever since to ensure that the outcome of the fire is justice for the survivors and that his community can remain in Notting Hill, one of the most sought after neighbourhoods  in the world. The Filmmaker interviewed Nicholas soon after the fire for the documentary PUSH...

The fire that destroyed the Grenfell Tower in Kensington Chelsea, London in June 2017 stunned the world. Located in the richest Borough in the world, Grenfell was a symbol of all that has gone wrong in housing for lower-income people. The Filmmaker and the Advocate speak with Grenfell survivor, Nicholas Burton, a character in PUSH who lived on the 20th floor of the building and who lost not just his home, but also his wife and his dog to the fire...

You know her from PUSH as assistant to the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing, but she’s come a long way since then! The Filmmaker and The Advocate welcome Julieta Perucca to the show in a warm post–PUSH reunion. She’s now a young leader making change around the world in her own right as the Deputy Director of The Shift. Fredrik and Leilani discuss Julieta's trajectory since the UN days and the important exchange of inspiration between mentors and those they mentor...

The Filmmaker and the Advocate are joined by extra special guests from Port Harcourt Nigeria – Chicoco Radio, made up of rappers and mappers, musicians, journalists, filmmakers and photographers. Together they discuss the harsh inequalities experienced in Africa's largest nation, particularly in the oil-producing Delta Coast – where erasure of communities and extremely violent forced evictions are a common part of life...

Berlin - known for its hip vibe and affordable rents - has become one of the most sought after places to live amongst young urbanites and creatives. Those affordable rents, however, have also drawn institutional investors and asset management firms like Blackstone and Heimstaden, who are buying up mass amounts of affordable apartments with a view to reaping huge profits by increasing rents. But Berlin’s tenants are having nothing of it...

Since the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, Spain has been ground zero for the financialization of housing. Blackstone, Cerberus and other institutional investors have plundered the social housing stock and gobbled up affordable homes. The Filmmaker and the Advocate are joined by Jaime Palomera Zaidel, founder and member of a tenants union and lecturer at the University of Barcelona...

The Filmmaker and The Advocate are joined by Patrick Butler, The Guardian’s Social Policy Editor. The trio discusses current social conditions across the UK as it continues to be hammered by the pandemic. In the world’s 5th largest economy, poverty, hunger and homelessness have burgeoned. So much so, that Manchester United footballer – Marcus Rashford – has stepped in, using his own history of poverty and his current clout to urge the Johnson government to provide food support for children...

Everyone knows there is a global housing crisis. More grassroots movements in cities around the world are challenging unaffordability, evictions, inhumane housing conditions, homelessness, and the influx of big capital into the housing sector. To defend their interests, many claim housing is a human right, not a commodity...