Nairobi, 2 October – 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.
Until November 6th, 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.
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 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.
Filmed on four continents, ‘The Human Shelter’ is a poetic and cinematic examination of what defines a home, celebrating the human resilience and creativity that are expressed in the portrayed stories from different parts of the world. The chapters of the film takes the viewer on an expedition from the snowy white landscape of the northern Norway, to a refugee shelter in Iraq, from the waterfront community of the Nigerian megacity Lagos to an Icelandic family living near a melting glacier, life in tiny apartments in Tokyo and the vision of what a home on Mars might look and feel like.
"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!” explains the director Boris B. Bertram.
‘The Human Shelter’ is produced by Creative Alliance and Good Company Pictures and supported by IKEA.
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
Boris Benjamin Bertram is an award-winning film director based in Copenhagen. His new film ’Photographer of War’ has just been released in the U.S. and lately he has collaborated with New York artist Taryn Simon on a film about public mourning based on her piece ’An Occupation of Loss’ (2016).
Download:Press Kit The Human Shelter