Who among us hasn’t ranted about housing in the past year? Conversations about rent increases, renovictions, gentrification, and general unaffordability seem inevitable when we meet up with friends and family in Vancouver. Leilani Farha has spent her career thinking about these very questions, from her beginnings in a small Ottawa office to her current position as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing. Push follows Farha as she traces a now global housing crisis. From London, to Valparaíso, to Milan, she speaks to the everyday people who tell the all-too-similar story about being pushed out of traditionally working class neighbourhoods to make way for luxury condo towers. Through interviews with common folk and politicians alike, we see the strain that cities across the globe have felt as housing, recognized as a human right by the UN, has become a commodity for the wealthy rather than a necessity for the many.

DOXA 2017 audiences may recognize Ada Colau, the current mayor of Barcelona from Ada for Mayor. Colau and Farha speak of possible solutions to the worldwide housing crisis and start a conversation about how to once again provide adequate housing to working people in the world’s cities — a conversation that Vancouverites will be eager to take part in. -CP

Runtime: 92 mins
Director: Fredrik Gertten
Country: Sweden
Year: 2019