On the World Habitat Day 2020, UN-Habitat will launch ‘Housing for All’, a five-week Campaign calling for action to improve housing conditions worldwide. The central message of the Campaign is that housing is not just a roof. It is a human right and contributes to health, dignity, safety, inclusion and well-being.
During the five weeks, acclaimed Danish film director Boris B. Bertram will share his documentary The Human Shelter‘ for the first time with a global audience in order to reflect on the fundamental role of housing for people and communities. The Human Shelter is available with subtitles in all UN languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Spanish, and Russian. To access the subtitles click ‘settings’ and then ‘subtitles’ for language options.
During the launch of the Housing for All Campaign at the Global Observance of World Habitat Day on 5 October, UN-Habitat Executive Director, Maimunah Mohd Sharif, will introduce a short clip of extracts from the film.
‘The Human Shelter’ a film from acclaimed Danish film director Boris B. Bertram
‘The Human Shelter’ is an inspirational exploration filmed on four continents, taking the public to extreme social, economic and environmental conditions worldwide and presenting a series of testimonies that look at various dimensions of human living. Boris Bertram’s film investigates the question of ‘what makes a home?’ and explores different people’s ways of creating their homes around the globe. In a refugee camp outside Mosul, in a shanty town on the lagoon in Lagos, or in six square metres in the megacity of Tokyo. The Director also visits the Sami reindeer herders in the Arctic Circle, and NASA’s futuristic Mars habitat in Hawaii, USA.
“Each location and scene in the film is intended to surprise the audience eye. In the making of the film, I have met human beings living on next to nothing, but insisting on living poetically in a world which is constantly changing. That is inspiring!” explained the Film Director.
Funded by IKEA, the documentary is a result of a two-year worldwide cinematographic expedition that allowed a deep exploration and generates provoking questions on the essence of housing around the world.
The Film will be made available to the public online from 5 October to 6 November 2020 for free on UN-Habitat’s Youtube channel.
Boris Benjamin Bertram is a filmmaker, producer and partner in the Copenhagen-based Good Company Pictures. Educated at the National Film School of Denmark as a documentary director in 2005, he also holds a graduate degree in social psychology and communication. He is the creator of award‐winning, international documentaries, sold to more than 30 countries and has made a variety of documentaries for the National Danish Television.
THE HUMAN SHELTER online screening: https://unhabitat.org/Housing4AllMore about THE HUMAN SHELTER at UN-Habitat https://unhabitat.org/the-human-shelter’-an-explorative-documentary-to-illustrate-un-habitat-housing-for-all‘-campaign
