In co-operation with The Hague University of Applied Sciences (Haagse Hogeschool) and co-organized with the transition-management students, TransitieCinema presents the screening of “Push”

Landlords without faces, apartments without tenants, Push explores the new, un-livable city.

Synopsis:
With housing now such a lucrative financial investment, how do we push back and reclaim the streets? In November of 2016, award-winning filmmaker Fredrik Gertten reached out to Global Director Leilani Farha, then UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing, on Twitter to learn more about her work. Three years later, feature length documentary Push has its global premiere in Copenhagen, Denmark. Push follows Leilani as she investigates why cities around the world are becoming so unaffordable. Housing is a fundamental human right, a precondition to a safe and healthy life. But in cities all around the world, having a place to live is becoming more and more difficult. Who are the players and what are the factors that make housing one of today’s most pressing world issues?

Director’s note:
PUSH is my journey to understand why life in our cities is getting so unaffordable. For two years I filmed with Leilani Farha, and 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 to describe 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 realise 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.