October 9, 2019 Season Premiere: “PUSH”

Why can’t we afford to live or own businesses in our own cities and towns anymore? How is it that The Commons are being bulldozed to accommodate the “financialization” of the real estate market? Housing affordability is decreasing at a record pace and homelessness is increasing by alarming rates. Who are the players and what are the factors that make housing one of today’s most pressing world issues? Swedish filmmaker Fredrik Gertten (“Big Boys Gone Bananas”, #5242 in the Film Library) follows Leilani Farha, the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing as she goes from Harlem to Valparaiso, South Korea to Toronto to talk to people who are being PUSHed out of their homes and their communities.

Young people are getting trapped in a cycle of renting apartments that are unaffordable and unreliable. Working people, more and more with children, are facing evictions and are left with no place to live, the number of people in the Global South living in “informal housing” (favelas) is projected to exceed 1 billion by next year.

This isn’t a natural, inevitable development. It can change. The film addresses ideas of what we, the public, need to do to PUSH back.

There will be a post-screening Q&A panel with Kelly Roth, Executive Director and Lisa Crossman, Peer Housing Support Coordinator with the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness. They are both Sooke residents and, along with members of the Sooke Shelter Society, will be able to enlighten filmgoers and answer questions about homelessness in our area.

7-9 p.m.

Trailer: pushthefilm.com

Interview with Leilani Farha: newint.org/features/2019/06/19/unitednations-leilanifarha-housing.