Quendrith Johnson

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent

Poster for PUSH the movie

Cancel rent? You’ve probably seen the hashtag floating in the zeitgeist of Social Media. In these tumultuous times globally, affordable housing is more of an issue than ever, with the pandemic’s lockdowns forcing limited work hours or terminations. Ever wonder who your landlord is, or if there’s a human behind the buildings where we live? PUSH is film available to view now in theaters and streaming, about being forced into untenable tenant situations. Specifically, “landlords without faces. Apartments without renters. A documentary exploring the new, unlivable city.”

Director & Writer Fredrik Gertten’s POV on the Project

“PUSH is my journey to understand why life in our cities is getting so unaffordable. For two years I filmed with Leilani Farha, we had daily Whatsapp chats discussing the issue. Early on it was clear that we were lacking a language to describe the ongoing development.”

“Words like gentrification are not sharp enough at describing the issue. It’s a global disease when homes are turned into assets in a financial game. The gentrification talk creates a divide. Blaming a hip coffee shop or an art gallery for pushing out the poor is just silly. There are other - much stronger forces in action.”

“If citizens and politicians want to push back the invasion of speculative money from hedge funds and criminals, we need a deeper understanding.”

“My hope is that PUSH will form a platform for better conversation.”

“That people in countries around the world realize that the development in their town is not unique. There’s a global pattern, a business model repeated over and over again..”

“A new kind of landlord, a hedge fund whose customers are not the tenants but the investors.”

“PUSH is now out on a global journey, at cinemas and festivals.”

“Everywhere, I meet people who through the film now feel less lonely. Just more angry.”

- Filmmaker Fredrik Gertten

PUSH Speaks for Itself

Housing prices are skyrocketing in cities around the world. Incomes are not. PUSH sheds light on a new kind of faceless landlord, our increasingly unliveable cities and an escalating crisis that has an effect on us all. This is not gentrification, it’s a different kind of monster.The film follows Leilani Farha, the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, as she’s traveling the globe, trying to understand who’s being pushed out of the city and why.

Watch How We’re Living Now…

Credits: Director & Writer Fredrik Gertten

Producer Margarete Jangård

Executive producer Fredrik Gertten

Editor Erik Wall Bäfving

Cinematographers Janice d’Avila and Iris Ng

Composer Florencia Di Concilio.

In co-production with SVT, Film i Skåne, ZDF / ARTE With support from Swedish Film Institute, Nordisk Film & TV Fond, Bertha Foundation, Omidyar Network, Malmö City and The Creative Europe programme of the European Union.

Visit and join the conversation here.

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